Judge rules 2 TYC firings were improper

AUSTIN (AP) - A federal judge ruled the Texas Youth Commission improperly terminated two longtime employees in the aftermath of the agency's sexual abuse scandal.

The Dallas Morning News reports it is a decision one attorney said could affect hundreds of workers.

District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio said in a ruling earlier this month that the TYC erred when it forced Patricia Logterman and Corinne Alvarez-Sanders to resign or be terminated in mid-2007.

Garcia's ruling also said a 2007 reform measure that allowed the TYC to fire any employee at will was unconstitutional, because it was applied retroactively to workers who were hired as "for cause" employees.

Attorney Dan Hargrove said TYC is going to have to re-evaluate its employment relationship with probably hundreds of workers.

TYC officials said they could not comment because of motions pending before they judge, but they said the personnel moves taken in 2007 were to "correct the mismanagement" that sent the agency into crisis.