The Texas Senate voted to approve Jay Kimbrough as conservator of the Texas Youth Commission, with Sen. Eliot Shapleigh casting the one negative vote.
Shapleigh said he believed that an investigation needed to be conducted into why action wasn’t taken sooner to prosecute sexual abuse charges, even though the Texas Attorney General’s office had received information on the case two years ago. Kimbrough at the time was an employee of the AG’s office.”You can’t investigate yourself,” Shapleigh said.
During one exchange, Shapleigh said, “God help us” is higher-ups in state government were not aware of the brewing scandal.
“Well, then God better help us,” responded Corrections committee chairman John Whitmire, who went on to scold scold Shapleigh for raising the issue without a “shred of evidence” that Kimbrough knew of the brewing scandal.
Further, he praised Kimbrough for acting quickly to resolve issues at the TYC. In particular, noting that Kimbrough immediately obtained medical care for a youth at the TYC’s Crockett facility after the child’s mother testified about her concerns of his well-being.
