Austin, TX

YMCA of Central Texas faces lawsuit over day care worker who police say injured children

Published

9 months ago

April 26, 2024

YMCA of Central Texas faces lawsuit over day care worker who police say injured children

The YMCA of Central Texas faces a lawsuit claiming that one of its day care workers injured a 2-year-old boy.

The day care worker named in the lawsuit, 45-year-old Geraline Browning, was charged this month with four counts of injury to a child and one count of assault in connection to hurting at least three children at a day care in North Austin, according to arrest affidavits.

All of the charges are third-degree felonies punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The day care is operated by the YMCA for full-time staff members of the Pflugerville school district, according to a district website. It said child care is provided for children from age 8 weeks up to 4 years old.

One of the criminal charges against Browning includes the abuse against the 2-year-old in the lawsuit, said Joe Caputo, the lawyer representing the boy’s mother. The lawsuit was filed Friday and seeks more than $1 million in damages.

More: Austin woman charged with injury to child after 3-month-old’s death

The YMCA does not comment on pending litigation, said Dana Driver, a spokeswoman for the organization.

Browning has been fired, said Laura Arredondo, the chief marketing officer for the YMCA.

“We have terminated an employee after reviewing evidence of physical aggression directed at several of our students,” Arredondo said. “We immediately alerted the parents, CPS and the local authorities. The well-being of our students is our utmost priority and fortunately, these children are safe. We follow the state’s guidelines on safety and run extensive background checks before hiring employees. The YMCA of Central Texas is committed to ensuring the safest possible environment for our families and will work tirelessly to that end.”

More: Texas fined $100k per day for failure to investigate foster care abuse

Caputo said Browning chased the 2-year-old boy around the day care and placed hands around his neck in a “choking fashion.” Police began investigating Browning after a Pflugerville school district employee began watching surveillance video of the day care in February because she was looking for a missing pair of shoes, one of the affidavits said.

She saw Browning on a video on Feb. 21 choking a child, the affidavit said. The day care is at Northwest Elementary School, at 14014 Thermal Drive in North Austin, which is in the Pflugerville school district.

The video also showed Browning grabbing a girl by the arm and shaking her, according to the affidavit. Browning later told a Pflugerville police detective she was anxious and “overreacted,” the affidavit said.

Other video surveillance from the day care showed Browning grabbing another child from behind by the neck and spinning the child around before forcing the child to the floor on Feb. 12, an affidavit said. Browning also was seen on Feb. 7 in a video grabbing a child around the neck and chest, according to an affidavit.

More videos in February showed Browning grabbing a 2-year-old girl by the neck and the collarbone and putting her on the floor, and also walking into the same girl causing the child to hit her forehead on a cabinet, an affidavit said. Another video from the day care in January showed Browning yanking the same girl off a stool by her arm, according to an affidavit.

Caputo called the facts in the Browning case “troubling.”

“Families in this community trust that the YMCA will care for their children,” Caputo said. “The YMCA facility betrayed that trust. We intend to get to the bottom of what happened so that this never happens again.”

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Austin, TX

How many immigrants have been arrested? See which Texas cities had ICE raids this weekend

Published

7 hours ago

January 27, 2025

Press Room

How many immigrants have been arrested? See which Texas cities had ICE raids this weekend

Within a week of Donald Trump’s second term as president, several raids were conducted by ICE agents throughout Texas as well as the rest of the U.S. Upon entering office last Monday, Trump delivered on a campaign promise and issued an executive order to “protect the American people against invasion.” His administration has said the aggressive deportation efforts would prioritize “violent offenders.”

The Drug Enforcement Agency, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assisted with the Texas operations.

An ICE spokesperson confirmed the raids in North Texas in an emailed statement to Texas Public Radio:

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement along with our federal law enforcement partners began conducting enhanced targeted operations today in North Texas and the state of Oklahoma to enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities.“

How many undocumented immigrants have been arrested?

Beginning Thursday, Jan. 23, ICE has reported single-day U.S. statistics for the number of individuals arrested and charged with a crime as well as those detained.

Jan. 23: 538 arrests, 373 detainers lodged
Jan. 24: 593 arrests, 449 detainers lodged
Jan. 25: 286 arrests, 421 detainers lodged
Jan. 26: 956 arrests, 554 detainers lodged

Similar operations occurred in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey and New York, according to various news reports.

It is unclear how many of these arrests and detainments occurred in Texas. However, several cities across the Lone Star State saw these “enhanced targeted operations” on Sunday.

Where did the ICE raids happen in Texas?

Officials have yet to confirm how many undocumented immigrants were apprehended in Texas Sunday. However, local news outlets suggest the following areas have been subjected to the raids:

How many undocumented immigrants are in Texas?

About 1.6 million unauthorized immigrants reside in Texas, according to July 2024 data in a Pew Research Center report.

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Austin, TX

ICE conducts 'targeted enforcement' in Austin over weekend

Published

19 hours ago

January 27, 2025

Press Room

ICE conducts 'targeted enforcement' in Austin over weekend

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Drug Enforcement Administration conducted “targeted enforcement actions” in Austin and other cities on Sunday, the DEA Houston division confirmed.

“The DEA Houston division assisted DHS with their targeted enforcement actions. We’ve assisted in several cities to include Austin,” said DEA spokesperson Sally Sparks in a text message to KUT News.

The DEA Houston division operates in a large swath of Texas, all the way from the southern border to as far north as Waco.

The division posted photos associated with the operations on X, formerly known as Twitter, Sunday.

According to ICE, enforcement operations involve “the identification, arrest, detention and removal of aliens who are subject to removal or are unlawfully present in the United States.” KUT News has reached out to Homeland Securities Investigations for further details about Sunday’s operations.

The news of ICE’s activities in Austin comes just over a week after Trump administration “border czar” Tom Homan said ICE would begin conducting illegal immigration enforcement raids. Homan said those raids would begin Tuesday, Jan. 21, and identified Chicago as an early target in an interview with Fox News.

“We’re going to take the handcuffs off ICE and let them go arrest criminal aliens. That’s what’s gonna happen,” Homan said.

ICE confirmed to the Texas Newsroom that operations are also underway in North Texas, where dozens of individuals were arrested over the weekend.

KXAN was first to report the news of ICE’s operations in Austin.

This is a developing story.

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Austin, TX

Yellow Jackets Fall to No. 1 Texas in Championship Match

Published

1 day ago

January 26, 2025

Press Room

Yellow Jackets Fall to No. 1 Texas in Championship Match

AUSTIN, Texas – The Yellow Jackets faced the number one team in college tennis on Sunday but fell 0-4 to Texas in the championship match of the ITA Kickoff Weekend at the Austin Regional.

In doubles action, Texas jumped to a quick 1-0 lead on the day, claiming doubles courts one and three. The duo of Sebastian Eriksson and Jonah Braswell got a 6-3 over the Tech pairing of Gabriele Brancatelli and Robert Bauer, before the No. 7 ranked doubles team of Lucas Brown and Timo Legout got a 6-4 win over No. 19 Krish Arora and Christophe Clement.

In singles action, the Yellow Jackets were unable to stop the Longhorns’ momentum, eventually dropping three singles matches, and falling 0-4 in the championship match.

No. 90 ranked Nate Bonetto faced Legout, who is ranked No. 3, but fell 1-6, 1-6, putting Texas up 2-0.

Branctelli took on No. 2 Sebastian Gorzny, but dropped his match 3-6, 2-6.

Sebastian Eriksson of Texas closed out the win for the Longhorns, defeating Georgia Tech’s Gianluca Carlini 6-1, 6-3.

Tech will be back in action Thursday, Jan. 30, as they welcome Georgia State to the Ken Byers Tennis Complex for a match at 4 p.m.

#1 Texas 4, Georgia Tech 0
Singles

#3 Timo Legout (TEX) def. #90 Nate Bonetto (GT) 6-1, 6-1
#2 Sebastian Gorzny (TEX) def. Gabriele Brancatelli (GT) 6-3, 6-2
Pierre-Yves Bailly (TEX) vs. Christophe Clement (GT) 6-4, 4-0, unfinished
#20 Jonah Braswell (TEX) vs. Krish Arora (GT) 7-5, 1-0, unfinished
Sebastian Eriksson (TEX) def. Gianluca Carlini (GT) 6-1, 6-3
#116 Lucas Brown (TEX) vs. Richard Biagiotti (GT) 6-3, 2-3, unfinished

Doubles

#7 Lucas Brown/Timo Legout (TEX) def. #19 Krish Arora/Christophe Clement (GT) 6-4
Sebastian Gorzny/Pierre-Yves Bailly (TEX) vs. #44 Nate Bonetto/Gianluca Carlini (GT) 6-5, unfinished
Sebastian Eriksson/Jonah Braswell (TEX) def. Gabriele Brancatelli/Robert Bauer (GT) 6-3

Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.

For the latest information on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, follow us on X (@GT_MTEN), Instagram (GT_MTEN), Facebook (Georgia Tech Men’s Tennis) or visit us at www.ramblinwreck.com

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