Brookins gets 10 years

Five years after the investigation began and three years after he was indicted on sexual abuse charges, the trial of former West Texas State School assistant superintendent Ray Edward Brookins wrapped up in less than a week.

A jury sentenced Brookins to 10 years in prison Friday after a day in which 11 witnesses, including Brookins himself, testified during the penalty phase of the trial.

Brookins was convicted on two counts each of improper relationship between an educator and a student, 10 years, and improper sexual contact with a person in custody, two years. The sentence is to be served concurrently, and Brookins was also fined $10,000. He has a possibility of parole after serving a quarter of his time.

Court-appointed defense attorney Jason Leach said Brookins’ attorneys fought hard.

“Any time the state of Texas asks for the maximum and doesn’t get it, the word isn’t happy, but I think (Brookins) is relieved,” Leach said.

State prosecutors deferred all comments to the Texas Attorney General’s office, but during his closing statements, Assistant Attorney General Ralph Guerrero said Brookins deserved more than the 44-year maximum the jury could recommend.

“I want you to show him the mercy he showed (his victims),” Guerrero said.

Throughout the trial, the defense claimed that the harsh measures Brookins instituted within the school, such as keeping restraints on some inmates for more than 20 hours without food or the ability to relieve themselves, were necessary to restore order to the state school when he arrived.

Brookins himself denied that any sexual abuse, including that which he was convicted, had occurred at all, and explained away discussions of pubic hair and circumcision as just “locker-room talk.”

“Just locker-room semen?” Guerrero asked during cross-examination, referring to evidence found in an artificial vagina in Brookins’ office. “Is that it?”

“Yes sir,” Brookins whispered.

Guerrero hammered Brookins on the stand for almost an hour with the details of the crimes he was convicted of Thursday, and testimony from other witnesses who said they were also victims.

Brookins, who began cool and precise during examination from defense attorney Bob Garcia, began to clench his jaw, and his responses mainly became reduced to “I have never sexually abused an inmate,” and other variations on that theme.

The prosecution painted Brookins a predator who exploited the weaknesses of his victims, with a history of sex abuse and misconduct dating back at least to 1995, when Brookins was still with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

“I wish there was only one (victim), but there’s not,” Assistant Attorney General Adrienne McFarland said. In all, five men testified that Brookins sexually abused them in some way.

Brookins’ former foster son testified that when the young man was 15, he met Brookins in a parking lot in Austin and went back to Brookins’ hotel room after asking for a ride home. The young man testified that pornography was playing in the room, and he and Brookins masturbated with a sex toy concealed to look like a beer can. Later in the trial, Brookins said it was part of his travel baggage.

The former foster son also claimed Brookins asked him to sleep in the same bed as Brookins, which Brookins confirmed, but disagreed there were sexual intentions.

Brookins also explained one witness’s trembling voice and reluctance to look at him during testimony as “rehearsed.”

Brookins’ former foster son testified that when the young man was 15, he met Brookins in a parking lot in Austin and went back to Brookins’ hotel room after asking for a ride home. The young man testified that pornography was playing in the room, and he and Brookins masturbated with a sex toy concealed to look like a beer can. Later in the trial, Brookins said it was part of his travel baggage.

The former foster son also claimed Brookins asked him to sleep in the same bed as Brookins, which Brookins confirmed, but disagreed there were sexual intentions.

Brookins also explained one witness’s trembling voice and reluctance to look at him during testimony as “rehearsed.”

The jury deliberated on the sentence for more than an hour before delivering their decision at about 6:50 p.m.

Brookins stood without outward displays of passion while state District Judge Jay Gibson read the sentence, while Brookins’ victim in the case sat on the bench with his head in his hands, trying to hold his emotions back. The young man glared across the courtroom as Brookins was taken away in cuffs.

Against stereotype, Texas Rangers Lt. Brian Burzynski, whose 2005 investigation was the basis of the case, was unable to control his own emotions after the trial and broke down for a moment.

“I usually don’t get emotionally involved in these cases,” Burzynski said, referencing homicides and rapes. “There’s usually enough other people supporting the victim. Here there was nobody.”

But Burzynski said he couldn’t be upset with the decision and praised the Attorney General’s office in prosecuting the case.

“I never thought this day would come,” Burzynski said.

Former correctional officer Anthony W. Halterman was glad the trial was over.

“The best thing that happened today was seeing the handcuffs go on, clink clink,” Halterman said.