TULSA, Ok. — Amid two former employees of the Tulsa County Family Center for Juvenile Justice charged with sex crimes against minors, and a civil lawsuit alleging a web of corruption, county officials remain silent.
2 News discovered the system makes it easier for officials to pass the buck of responsibility for answers into the problems at the facility.
Colleen McCarty, Executive Director for the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, released a massive report outlining problems she said records show dating to the beginning of the Family Center for Juvenile Justice.
Problems, McCarty and the lawsuit said, were known about and never fixed.
- Previous coverage >>> Second former Tulsa juvenile detention employee arrested, accused of sex crimes
Every year, the Office of Juvenile Affairs inspected the FCJJ, and there were multiple failures.
Before sexual abuse allegations surfaced, other failures included residents attending school only one to two hours per day and residents not being allowed out of their rooms the required 12 hours per day.
Records also show problems with staff members being intoxicated at work and smuggling drugs into the facility.
So who is to blame?
“There is no one solely responsible for what goes on there,” said McCarty.
- Funding for FCJJ is supervised by the Tulsa County Juvenile Trust Authority, but it has no authority over operations.
- Other funding and legal issues are the responsibilities of Tulsa County Commissioners.
- The Tulsa County Juvenile Chief Judge is in charge of hiring and firing of one person, the facility director.
- A state agency called the Office of Juvenile Affairs inspects and licenses the facility.
Currently, the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office is handling Open Records Requests for the FCJJ, that is the same office prosecuting two FCJJ employees.
“Can you explain to me how it is not a conflict of interest for the district attorney to be prosecuting these cases?” asked McCarty.
In February of this year, McCarty said the FCJJ obtained a permanent license. The attorney for the OJA did not recommend it. Documents state he sent a letter to 13 county officials urging the facility to remain on probation.
Despite the recommendation of its own attorney, the OJA gave the FCJJ a license.
“And there is really no explanation into that from the records we got,” explained McCarty.
Speaking of records, there is not a disciplinary record on Dquan Doyle, one of the staff members charged with sexual battery and other crimes involving a minor resident. When Doyle was under investigation for sexual battery, he was reportedly already suspended for smuggling contraband.
McCarty said she was told there was no record of disciplinary action.
“They are saying there are no disciplinary records for anyone in the facility who is a defendant in the lawsuit,” she said.
Doyle was charged on June 25, and a warrant was issued. The Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office arrested Doyle on June 26.
Jonathan Hines, another former detention officer charged with sexual abuse-related offenses against a minor at the facility, was scheduled for a preliminary hearing on June 26. It's been pushed back to next week.
WATCH: 2 News' Erin Christy looked into allegations against Hines
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