TX - Lifestyle-as-guilt: the child abuse convictions of the San Antonio 4

A woman who recently publicly recanted a sexual assault allegation she made as a child against four women, including her aunt, is now the subject of a Child Protective Services investigation that her attorney said is a result of retaliation linked to the recantation.

The woman's children were placed in temporary foster care last week while CPS investigates, a removal the woman said is unjustified.
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~n/t~ said:

wfgodot: Hoping you can help me out.

I'm trying to locate the actual case archives and/or trial transcripts. Are they available anywhere? I searched TruTV and CourtTV but was unsuccessful. Any help would be appreciated by you or anyone else. Thanks.

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wfgodot said:

I'd doubt it. The case was so many years ago, almost pre-internet. You might try emailing Michelle Mondo, the S.A. Ex-News reporter who's covering it, or maybe the guy who keeps the fourliveslost site I linked above. (Two of the first-person case narratives there are worth reading.)

I remember hearing about this case when it happened; it was pretty big news. Then when I moved to S.A. I knew people who knew people who knew one of the women, so I learned much more about it then.

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On and off the witness stand, the girls changed their accounts of the timing, weapons, perpetrators and other basic details of the assault every time they told it to authorities, records show.

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(...) research available when she examined the girls classified the three signs of sexual trauma she found as either normal, inconclusive or impossible to identify as a scar

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Blue_Dolphin308 said:

Umm I am a VICTIM of it and I know many other victims of it! That is all that needs to be said!

If you want further reading. Look into the "Illuminati" thread I believe is now in the parking lot. Linked here

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~n/t~ said:

I can't understand how someone can definitely say these women are innocent based on 2 articles posted.

I'm amazed.

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SAN ANTONIO — After spending more than a decade in prison for a crime they say never happened, three of four women fighting for exoneration will walk out of jail later Monday, perhaps never to return.

Cheers erupted in the packed courtroom when the attorney for Elizabeth Ramirez, 39, Cassandra Rivera, 38, and Kristie Mayhugh, 40, announced about 11 a.m. that a judge had been released them on bond.

“For all those who are here to support the 'San Antonio Four' we appreciate you coming,” said attorney Mike Ware said. “The paperwork has been signed and the women will be released on signature bond,” meaning they don't need to pay any money.

The fourth woman, Anna Vasquez, 38, has been out on parole for more than a year.
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In 2013, a Bexar County District Court allowed three of the women to be released from prison while the court considered their request. Vasquez had just been released on parole. Reed told CNN at that time she was not going to retry the cases if the verdicts were overturned.
The motion worked its way through the Texas courts for more than two years and, in February 2016, the judge recommended the convictions be vacated. The trial court finding is a recommendation, and it is up to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to make the final ruling...

In the past 2½ years, the women have been working and assimilating back into the community. They have used skills learned behind bars to help them find employment.
There is one last thing they are asking for from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: They want to be declared innocent as a matter of law. That decision may come before the end of the year.
"I believe we deserve to be known as innocent. There is a terrible injustice. We are not going give up until we are found we are innocent. We will keep fighting," Rivera said.
The women's story is told in the documentary "Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four." It premiers Friday at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

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The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday that the women known as the "San Antonio 4" be declared innocent and exonerated.

Elizabeth Ramirez, Kristie Mayhugh, Cassandra Rivera and Anna Vasquez were convicted in 1997 of attacking Ramirez’s nieces, ages 7 and 9. The girls were bound and sexually assaulted and their lives were threatened if they told anyone, authorities said.

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