Back in 1997, a San Antonio woman was sentenced to decades in prison for leading a gang-rape of her two young nieces. However, the case fell apart after one of the victims said she had been told to make up the story after her aunt came out as a lesbian. Late Friday, the Texas Court of Appeals officially exonerated the four women after finding that they had proven beyond any doubt that they had been framed in a cynical and despicable way.
In the summer of 1994, Elizabeth Ramirez babysat for two of her nieces, aged 7 and 9 at the time. Three of her friends–Kristie Mayhugh, Cassie Rivera, and Anna Vasquez–frequently visited the apartment during this time. When the two girls returned home, they told their grandmother a horrific tale–their aunt and her friends had pinned them down and assaulted them ritual-style.
Ramirez, Mayhugh, Rivera, and Vasquez were all arrested soon afterward on charges of aggravated sexual assault on a child and indecency with a child. Prosecutors offered the women 10 years’ probation if they pleaded guilty, but they turned that offer down, maintaining they had been framed because they had all recently come out as lesbian–a risky move at the time in San Antonio.
Ramirez was tried first, and prosecutors made much of her sexual orientation. They also relied heavily on the testimony of Dr. Nancy Kellogg, who claimed that the girls’ injuries could have only come from penetration with a foreign object. It was more than enough to overcome the inconsistencies in the girls’ testimony, and the then 22-year-old Ramirez was sentenced to 37.5 years in prison. Mayhugh, Rivera, and Vasquez were tried in 1998, and prosecutors presented essentially the same case as they had at Ramirez’ trial. The result was more or less the same; all three were sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The beginning of the end for this case came in 2012, when one of the alleged victims, Stephanie Martinez, dropped a bombshell. She claimed that her father, Javier Limon, and her grandmother, Serafina Limon, had forced her to make up the story. According to Martinez, her father and grandmother hit the ceiling after finding out Ramirez had come out, and told her to make up the claims of sexual assault as retaliation. If she didn’t go along with the scheme, Martinez said, “I would end up in prison, taken away, and even get my ass beat.” Ramirez and her mother, Gloria, suspected that Limon was also angry that Ramirez had spurned a number of his advances.
Soon afterward, Kellogg recanted her previous testimony after it had been discredited by advances over the past decade. However, even before these advances, Kellogg’s findings shouldn’t have passed the smell test. According to Debbie Nathan of the National Center for Reason and Justice, Kellogg’s testimony sounded a lot like the rampant claims of Satanic ritual abuse from the 1980s–claims that had long since been discredited by then.
In 2013, under a recently-passed law that made it easier to challenge convictions based on outdated forensic evidence, attorney Mike Ware of the Innocence Project of Texas filed writs for post-conviction relief on behalf of the four women, by then known as the “San Antonio Four.” In October 2013, Ramirez, Mayhugh, and Rivera were released on bond; Vasquez had been paroled in 2012. However, in a tacit admission that the charges no longer had any merit, the Bexar County district attorney not only agreed to the San Antonio Four’s removal from the sex offender registry, but also announced there wouldn’t be a retrial.
After a two-day hearing in February 2016, a Bexar County judge recommended that the convictions be tossed out, saying that the four women would “more likely than not” have been acquitted if they knew about the scientific evidence. However, he was reluctant to fully exonerate them without a full recantation from Martinez’ sister.
On Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ended this farce. Read the main opinion here and the concurring opinion here. The new scientific evidence, combined with Martinez’ recantation, led the court to uphold the women’s contention that “no reasonable juror” could have possibly convicted them. It also found that Javier Limon had indeed “threatened and assaulted” Martinez and her sister in order to make them go along with his scheme. On that basis, the court found that the San Antonio Four had indeed been framed, and had “won the right to proclaim to the citizens of Texas that they are innocent.”
This ruling opens the door for the women to seek millions of dollars in compensation. Ramirez had spent 17 years in prison; Mayhugh and Rivera, 13 years; Vasquez, 12 years. Their story was the subject of a recently-released documentary, “Southwest of Salem.” Watch the trailer here.
However, there is one more necessary step. Javier and Serafina Limon must be brought up on charges of subornation of perjury, witness tampering, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.. Telling someone to lie under oath is an outrage, but telling two little girls to do so is absolutely heinous. As far as I’m concerned, Martinez and her sister were victimized as much, if not more, than their aunt as a result of this outrageous and homophobia-infused frame-up.
Forcing a minor to lie under oath is a crime that no reasonably civilized society can tolerate. If prosecutors in Bexar County haven’t already done so, the Limons must be arrested and tried for having framed these women, and they must GO TO PRISON.
(featured image courtesy Innocence Project of Texas’ Facebook)
