The youth officer’s non-employment status initially changed as part of the sexual misconduct investigation

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Texas Department of Juvenile Justice allowed a juvenile corrections officer under investigation over allegations of sexual misconduct to resign and remain eligible for employment weeks after he was fired, state records show.

Records obtained by KXAN show the change was part of a 2022 arbitration agreement between former juvenile corrections officer Isaiah Xavier Smith and the agency. Smith was initially fired in September 2022 for turning off his body camera as the agency investigated a report that he inappropriately touched a minor at Giddings State School.

However, according to the settlement agreement, the agency agreed weeks later to convert Smith’s “termination,” which made him ineligible for rehire, to a “resignation for personal reasons.” The agency also agreed to reclassify Smith as “employment eligible” in its Integrated Certification Information System (ICIS) — a database accessible to other county juvenile facilities that use it to verify certification eligibility and other misconduct records.

The agency clarified in the settlement that it could still consider his “overturned disciplinary termination” internally if he attempted to reapply for a TJJD position.

A KXAN investigation found that after leaving TJJD, Smith was able to work as a high school tutor while he was under investigation for allegations of sexual misconduct. Our investigation also found that the nonprofit that hired him, Austin Partners in Education, or APIE, did not have access to the ICIS database or its misconduct data.

APIE Director Cathy Jones wrote in an email to KXAN that Smith did not disclose his employment history at TJJD or the agency’s ongoing investigation into his alleged misconduct. Austin Independent School District officials said the district will conduct internal background checks on volunteers next school year following the Smith case.

Records show that TJJD did not reverse its decision until more than a year after the settlement, in December 2023, after Smith was arrested and charged with indecency with a minor at an Austin ISD high school to which APIE had assigned him.

TJJD declined an interview with KXAN but said via email that under state law, laid-off employees are entitled to the mediation process. The agency said everything in mediation other than the settlement agreement is confidential.

Smith’s attorneys have not responded to multiple requests for comment from KXAN. In a letter to KXAN in March, Smith said the agency had “deleted any disciplinary record” after he “appealed a disciplinary decision.”

“It’s surprising given the allegations and allegations in the case,” said Austin Kaplan, an employment and civil rights attorney in Austin. “It is surprising considering the (Office of the Inspector General) investigation appeared to be underway at the same time.”

In a statement, TJJD officials said the settlement did not stop the investigation into Smith’s alleged sexual misconduct by the Office of the Inspector General, which investigates employees accused of crimes. Smith was still “flagged” in the agency’s database, and officials said the agency “could have provided potential employers with Smith’s employment dates and other information, depending on what they asked.”

Between agency officials signing the settlement agreement and the decision’s reversal in 2023, the agency’s Office of Inspector General completed its investigation into Smith. In July 2023, OIG investigators determined that Smith had an inappropriate relationship with a juvenile.

Smith got the job at the nonprofit APIE in October, three months after the OIG investigation concluded. Months later — in December 2023 — a panel of three members of the Texas Juvenile Justice Board met to issue an order again barring Smith from reinstatement or certification as a juvenile corrections officer.

Smith is currently being held in jail on multiple counts of indecency with a minor out of Lee County – where his former workplace, Giddings State School, is located – and in Travis County.

His case has already drawn the attention of Texas Senators Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, and Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who co-authored a bill in 2023 to create a statewide central archive of records of government misconduct.

“There is a failure here, no question about it, and this person should never have been around young people again,” Bettencourt told KXAN in February.

Bettencourt and Kolkhorst said they would introduce new legislation to close gaps in Texas law. After a KXAN investigation into Smith, they said they would give the Texas Education Agency the authority to investigate and determine whether contractors working in schools can be placed on their do-not-hire list.