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2 News Oklahoma KJRH Tulsa
NO LEADERS: Town hall addresses allegations at Tulsa juvenile justice center
By Erin Christy,
10 days ago
Members of the community came out to the Greenwood Cultural Center July 11th to learn more about allegations of misconduct and sexual abuse at the Tulsa County juvenile detention center called Family Center for Juvenile Justice (FCJJ).
2 News' Erin Christy started digging into the abuse allegation in June.
The focus of the evening quickly turned from not who was in attendance, but who was not in attendance.
The non-profit organization, Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, organized the town hall event and invited 20 area leaders to attend.
They reserved the first two rows with the elected leaders names on them.
The only person to attend was State Representative and candidate for Tulsa mayor Monroe Nichols.
“There are a lot of people who haven’t taken the time to figure out what happened at the FCJJ and that is a shame,” said Nichols.
State Representative Meloyde Blancett did not have a named seat, but did attend.
Many of the invited leaders later told Appleseed of schedule conflicts.
Appleseed did not get a response from Commissioner Karen Keith. Keith is a Tulsa mayoral candidate and as commissioner, championed the building of the juvenile justice facility.
2 News texted her for a response and did not hear back.
One of the panelists was Chris Brecht of Smolen Law. He represents 30 minors alleging a variety of abuse, mainly sexually-related. The civil lawsuit claims multiple people involved, including a district judge and county commissioners, didn’t fix known issues.
“I don’t want to hear, ‘I didn’t know’ and ‘it’s not my fault and ‘it’s not my responsibility.’ How many kids have to get hurt for you to care?” said Brecht. “From what we’ve learned, I would highly doubt there is a single juvenile that hasn’t been abused.”
Burt Holmes showed up as a concerned citizen. His good friend just quit his job at the FCJJ.
“He quit, he couldn’t stand it anymore,” he said. "It’s just a bad situation and everyone is pointing the finger at someone else.”
But who is in charge became a common question of the night.
Due to the set up of the juvenile justice system, the answer is complicated. Nichols thinks who is in charge does not matter, because, according to the lawsuit, many knew and didn’t take action.
“I think who is responsible is a better question,” said Nichols. “There are a number of people who were aware and did nothing—all of whom are responsible.”
Appleseed asked for the Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler to recuse himself from cases involving the FCJJ, but he declined.
The group also wants a temporary shutdown of the facility and for the state attorney general to conduct an investigation. There is a petition setup. Click here for a link .
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