BOSTON -- An administrator at a Boston center for at-risk youth is accused of paying a teen for sex.

NewsCenter 5's Jack Harper reported that the alleged incident happened at the Ella J. Baker House in Dorchester. The accused administrator has been fired.

The Ella J. Baker House is well known in Dorchester. But critics wonder whether the center's hiring practices are putting some children at risk.

Derrick Patrick, 35, a boy's counselor at the center, is accused of paying a 17-year-old girl to have sex with him in a bathroom.

"The Baker House's first obligation with respect to any minor, anybody who has the custody of minors, is to report any alleged abuse. That was done promptly and an investigation was done promptly," said attorney Fred Dashiell.

The Rev. Eugene Rivers founded the center.

Patrick had served time for armed robbery and assault. Dashiell defended the center's hiring of ex-convicts.

"You do the best you can to get the best people. Ex-offenders, non-offenders, ministers, adults, the youths that work in counselor positions here -- you get the best people to be as effective as you can be. Especially with this population of lost children," Dashiell said.

Rivers is traveling abroad and was not available for comment on the allegations.