3 face felony charges in assault at juvenile prison close to Waco
Three teens already doing time in a state juvenile prison near Waco are facing new felony charges after they allegedly beat a fellow prisoner for nearly 20 minutes when he refused to give up his food, according to court records.
Roncarlos Rachal, Cedrick Williams and Reginald Stewart were all charged last month for the June 29 attack, which came just weeks after two of the teens allegedly forced a Texas Juvenile Justice Department guard into a closet to rob her of her “free world snacks.”
“This suggests really troubling things about the culture at the facility,” said juvenile justice expert and University of Texas at Austin lecturer Michele Deitch, after reviewing the charging documents from the 19-minute beating. “Where were the staff ? Or if the staff were there — what the hell were they doing?”
The violent outbursts are just the latest in a string of problems at the McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility, which has struggled with staffing shortages, malfunctioning radios, an uptick in violence and a persistent contraband problem.
The first of the two incidents involved Rachal, Williams and another teen, Carlos Tejeda, who court records show became the victim in the later assault.
On June 11, a guard in the facility’s H Dorm unlocked the staff closet to get more laundry soap, when three teens allegedly attacked her and pinned her against a shelf. She told them to stop, but they ignored her, instead making a grab for her purse, according to court records. The woman injured her arm as she tried to free herself, while the teens allegedly stole her snacks and ate them.
Afterward, all three boys were sent to the security unit while agency investigators start
“This suggests really troubling things about the culture at the facility.”
Michele Deitch, juvenile justice expert
ed looking into what happened, according to agency spokesman Brian Sweany. In addition to the eventual criminal charges, Sweany said, one teen ended up losing all privileges for 30 days and the other two were referred to the Phoenix program, a specialized treatment program for highly aggressive youth. But because there were no free beds in the Phoenix dorm, the teens all stayed on their original dorm to wait for space to open up.
It was there the second attack took place a little over two weeks later. On June 29, according to court records, Rachal, Williams and Stewart allegedly ganged up on Tejeda, punching, stomping and kicking him in the common area of H-3 Dorm. A security camera caught footage of the beat down.
Afterward, Tejeda told investigators it was Williams who initiated the attack, after he refused to “accept bow” — or give up his food to avoid a beating. The beaten teen was taken to the unit’s infirmary the next day, suffering a swollen hand, busted lip, bruised arm and abrasions on his knee. A few days later, officials sent him to the local hospital for a scan, but by mid-July, he still complained of dizziness and jaw pain.
In the weeks that followed, Rachal, Williams and Tejeda were all charged for the robbery and unlawful restraint, while Rachal, Williams and Stewart were charged with aggravated assault. The boys are all facing adult criminal charges and have since been moved to the McLennan County Jail, where records show they join more than a half dozen other teens also facing new adult charges as a result of bad behavior in state juvenile lockups.
The guard who failed to break up the fight has since been suspended pending a disciplinary decision, but Sweany called her apparent lack of supervision a “dereliction of duty.”
“There is absolutely no reason for any youth to be unsupervised for that period of time,” he said. “They should always be supervised.”
The Waco-area facility has struggled in recent months with serious staffing shortages, according
to monthly reports filed by oversight officials from the Office of the Independent Ombudsman. Repeatedly, the reports show officers complained about forced overtime, working 12-hour shifts on back-to-back days. At one point, three officers urinated on themselves because there wasn’t anyone available to relieve them.
It’s not clear if the lack of staff played a role in the June incidents, but earlier this year, oversight officials described a “chaotic environment” after one visit to the facility. During a walkthrough, ombudsman officials spotted kids playing cards, roughhousing, cursing, making threats and sleeping on floors and couches during group sessions. One youth had a newspaper ad for guns hung up in his cell, and gang tags appeared on tables, doors and window frames across the campus.
“There continues to be a lack of structure and staff control,” officials wrote after the April afterward. “Youth were observed cursing, threatening others, being disrespectful to staff, horseplaying and not following the dress code and had their pants sagging where their underwear could be seen.”