Texas
Bastrop shelter caretaker accused of exploiting girls was fired from previous job for misconduct with children
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The caretaker accused of promoting nude pictures of two teenage victims of sexual abuse at a state-contracted shelter in Bastrop was beforehand fired from a close-by state juvenile facility for having inappropriate relationships with youngsters in her care, state information present.
Iesha M. Greene was fired by the Texas Juvenile Justice Division in April 2020 after seven months on workers on the Giddings State Faculty in Lee County. She was employed 16 months later by The Refuge, a personal Bastrop facility for ladies who’ve been sexually abused.
Texas authorities say Greene in January solicited and offered nude footage of two ladies within the facility’s care. The incident finally led authorities to close down the 50-acre ranch whereas they conduct an investigation.
The Refuge officers have testified that they run state-required background checks on all potential workers and that Greene’s screening revealed she didn’t have a legal file.
The Refuge spokesperson Steven Phenix mentioned the ability was “completely not” conscious Greene was fired from Giddings, which he mentioned would have prevented her hiring on the Bastrop facility.
Phenix mentioned Greene did disclose her employment at Giddings, however The Refuge’s hiring workers by no means contacted her former supervisors there. The Texas Tribune obtained Greene’s personnel recordsdata, that are publicly obtainable, via a information request.
The incident has prompted The Refuge to strengthen its hiring practices, Phenix mentioned.
“We’ve got instituted necessities that go above and past the state’s necessities to additional cut back the possibilities a rent like this can be made once more,” he mentioned. He described Greene as a “perpetrator with legal intent.”
Greene was employed as a youth improvement coach at Giddings, a correctional facility for boys, in September 2019, Juvenile Justice Division information state. Six months later, the division launched an investigation into Greene concerning her conduct throughout a shift on Feb. 23, 2020.
The assigned investigator reviewed surveillance footage from that day and acknowledged in a report that Greene allowed youths to make use of a workers telephone and pc, towards coverage, the place they accessed social media and pornography, a few of which they printed through a workers printer.
Greene additionally left boys unattended for 90 minutes that day, the report states, and several other teenagers on the facility mentioned Greene was “flirtatious” with them. The report concluded Greene had acted inappropriately with the kids in her care and that her conduct had a “vital danger of inflicting substantial emotional hurt” to them.
The company fired Greene in April 2020 and barred her from future employment there.
Greene couldn’t be reached for remark Thursday. She has not been charged with a criminal offense associated to her alleged conduct at The Refuge; an investigation by the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Workplace is ongoing. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Division of Public Security, advised lawmakers at a listening to final month he believes Greene can be charged with sexual exploitation of a kid and possessing baby pornography.
The Refuge mentioned Greene claimed to have beforehand labored for six different state-licensed baby care services earlier than she was employed. The shelter’s workers declined to share Greene’s résumé.
Greene was an in a single day supervisor at The Refuge, tasked with watching over youth whereas their major workers caretaker slept. After the accusations towards Greene emerged, shelter leaders say in addition they realized she had allowed the residents to make use of her smartphone, a coverage violation, and slept on the job.
The Refuge, which has been shut down since March 11, hopes to persuade state regulators to permit it to reopen. Out of 324 residential baby care services in Texas, The Refuge is the one one to have its license involuntarily suspended since 2021, a Division of Well being and Human Companies spokesperson mentioned.
The suspension was triggered by Greene’s alleged actions and a earlier incident wherein two of the shelter’s residents ran away Feb. 20 with assistance from different workers. The Refuge fired the 2 workers discovered answerable for the latter incident, and the youngsters concerned have been returned to the ability.
The state at the moment requires services that work with youngsters like The Refuge to run background checks on all their potential hires. Nevertheless, these checks would inform employers solely whether or not job candidates have a legal file and wouldn’t have included details about earlier terminations or the explanations they have been fired.
The Refuge leaders say they’re ramping up their background verify course of and enlisting Praesidium, a third-party service that scours public information along with these discovered by conventional background checks. The software was advisable by Gov. Greg Abbott’s workplace after The Refuge case turned public. It’s unclear whether or not the service would have flagged Greene’s misconduct report and termination at Giddings State Faculty.
The Refuge officers reported the sexual abuse allegations towards Greene to the state and fired her on Jan. 24, the identical day they are saying they realized of the incident. Since then, the scenario has been underneath investigation.
The state eliminated all the kids in The Refuge’s care on March 9, 5 weeks after the ability reported the allegations towards Greene. A day later, U.S. District Choose Janis Jack known as an emergency courtroom listening to.
Jack was notably involved over the scenario as a result of the youth at The Refuge weren’t eliminated even after it turned clear that a few of Greene’s family additionally labored there. 4 different shelter workers have been associated to Greene. None of them stay employed by The Refuge.
State officers and a federal courtroom additionally blasted how the state’s baby care company dealt with and escalated reviews on The Refuge case within the weeks after the ability reported the incident. Neither Texas Division of Household and Protecting Companies higher-ups nor the federal courtroom overseeing the state’s foster care system have been notified concerning the scenario till weeks later, they are saying. DFPS Commissioner Jaime Masters blamed not discovering out rapidly concerning the scenario on an “unbelievable” tradition drawback on a small staff inside DFPS. Two workers have been fired consequently.
Nevertheless, Justin Lewis, former director of kid care investigations for Texas’ protecting companies company, mentioned that DFPS was scapegoating these workers earlier than he turned in his personal resignation. He mentioned many years of systemic points and convoluted processes have led to communication breakdowns within the troubled company — and stored DFPS executives out of the loop.
After the scenario was made public by the federal courtroom, the Texas Home and Senate every had hearings to go over particulars of the incidents at The Refuge and take an total take a look at the foster care system.
Texas
Texas A&M hit with transfer portal exodus after Jim Schlossnagle’s exit
The ripple effect of Jim Schlossnagle’s shocking departure from College Station to Austin is just beginning.
One day after Schlossnagle accepted an offer to become the next head coach at Texas and two days after Texas A&M lost the College World Series final, 11 Texas A&M players have entered the transfer portal, according to The Athletic’s Max Olson. Six of those players were starters for the Aggies in the College World Series against Tennessee.
Here’s the current list of Texas A&M players in the portal (bolded names started in Monday’s CWS finale):
- Jace LaViolette
- Gavin Grahovac
- Kaeden Kent
- Jack Bell
- Max Kaufer
- Hayden Schott
- Caden Sorrell
- Jett Johnston
- Ali Camarillo
- Justin Vossos
- Carl Schmidt
According to the NCAA’s transfer rules, players are given a 30-day transfer window when a head coach leaves.
LaViolette was an All-American, is widely considered the top prospect in the 2025 MLB Draft, and hit 29 home runs for the Aggies this season. Grahovac was just named the SEC’s Freshman of the Year after posting a 1.051 OPS with 19 homers. Schott posted a .916 OPS while Camarillo was the Aggies’ starting shortstop.
This is quite the turn for LaViolette. When the news of Schlossnagle’s departure came out, LaViolette posted the following on Twitter/X:
“Thank you @12thMan from the bottom of my heart for everything y’all did for us throughout the year, if you’re in the portal your missing out if you don’t want to be apart of the best university in the nation. this is where people come to be great! Let’s go get it done next year!”
Kent became one of the stars of the College World Series when he stepped up in Braden Montgomery’s absence. The son of former major leaguer Jeff Kent was selected to the CWS All-Tournament.
It remains to be seen if these players are following Schlossnagle to the Longhorns.
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Texas
Arizona lands a commitment from 3-star Texas safety Coleman Patmon
The Arizona Wildcats are continuing to speed down the recruiting trail, gaining double-digit commitments across the 2025 and 2026 classes in a few short weeks. Wednesday was no exception, as another player announced his decision to play college football in Tucson.
Coleman Patmon, a 3-star safety from Texas, announced his commitment on X.
Patmon, who plays at Del Valle High School, is another talented pick-up for Brent Brennan out of the Lone Star State. He is versatile enough to play corner, safety and linebacker with the 6-foot-3, 192 pound frame to support him. He plays physical and is sticky in coverage. He played in 10 games as a junior, the same amount of games he did as a sophomore, and increased his production between seasons.
As a sophomore, Patmon had 22 tackkes, a PBU and a fumble recovery. As a junior, he racked up 41 tackles, 1 for a loss, 3 interceptions, 2 PBUs, a forced fumble and 2 fumble recoveries.
Patmon chose Arizona about two weeks after his official visit to Tucson. He finished up an official to Houston, with previous official trips to Northwester, TCU and Oklahoma State. He chose the ‘Cats over 18 other offers: TCU, Northwestern, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Texas Tech, Houston, Washington and UNLV to name a few.
He is ranked as a 3-star in both of 247’s ranking systems. Internally, he checks in as the No. 69 safety and the 137th-best player in Texas. In the Composite, Patmon is rated as the No. 987 player nationally, the 83rd safety and the No. 163 player in Texas.
You can view his junior season film below.
Patmon is the 16th known commitment for the 2025 recruiting class, as well as the seventh from Texas and the sixth defensive back. The Wildcats are expected to lose four of their five starting DBs after the 2024 season.
Texas
Heat advisory extended into another day for North Texas as dangerous heat continues
NORTH TEXAS – Another scorcher is in store across Dallas-Fort Worth on Wednesday.
The heat advisory that was issued earlier this week has been extended until 7 p.m. as feels-like temperatures are expected to reach 109 in the afternoon. The advisory will likely be extended into Thursday.
People are advised to remember heat safety precautions as there won’t be any relief from the heat, even overnight. North Texans are waking up to feels-like temperatures in the upper 80s and lower 90s.
It will feel like the triple digits by 12 p.m. and continue to get hotter in the afternoon.
A few storms with gusty winds and small hail are possible Wednesday, mainly in northeastern areas.
The ridge of high pressure dominating the weather will shift a bit to the west and allow a disturbance to clip our eastern counties.
Thursday’s forecast will be similar to Wednesday, waking up to feels-like temperatures near 90 degrees with afternoon heat indices near 110 degrees.
Once again, a few afternoon storms are possible Thursday before high pressure firmly sets up over the area. That brings a string of triple-digit days with heat indices between 103 and 110 degrees.
It will get hotter from here, heading into July and August.
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