By Mitch Mitchell
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
DALLAS — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday that the women known as the “San Antonio 4" are innocent and have been exonerated of a crime in a case their lawyer argued should never have gone to trial.
Elizabeth Ramirez, Kristie Mayhugh, Cassandra Rivera and Anna Vasquez were wrongfully convicted during two trials that accused the four of sexually assaulting, “gang-raping” Ramirez’s nieces, ages 7 and 9.
Ramirez, who was convicted in 1997, agrees with her attorney, Michael Ware, executive director of the Fort Worth-based Innocence Project of Texas, that the charges were preposterous and would never have gone forward if the four women had not declared themselves to be lesbians.
“I believe had they not been openly gay those accusations would have ended right there,” Ware said moments after the appeals court opinion was issued.
All four women found themselves in prison after a second trial in 1998. The trials turned on the false testimony from the alleged victims in the case, who had apparently been coached by adults, and the testimony of a physician who admitted that she misrepresented the facts, Ware said.
“That’s the testimony we were able to debunk,” Ware said. “She testified that there was scientific evidence that there was a sexual assault. Even the doctor herself admitted that she misinterpreted the evidence. I would like to think that without that testimony the jurors would have come to another conclusion.”
Vasquez was paroled in 2012 when the Innocence Project took up their case and all four clearly passed polygraph tests asserting their innocence, according to Ware. The other three women were released on bail in 2013 after lawyers working for the Innocence Project uncovered additional evidence that was never presented at trial, Ware said.
“One of the accusers contacted me and recanted,” Ware said. “She said that her and her sister’s testimony was completely fabricated.”
Ware said he got involved in the case in 2006 after being contacted by a University of Michigan law school professor. At the time, Ware said, he had just resigned his position heading the Conviction Integrity Unit with the Dallas County district attorney’s office. After Ware reviewed the case files, he had each woman take two polygraph examinations, which they passed, Ware said.
Ware said he respects officials with the Bexar County district attorney’s office who were professional and helpful once Ware presented them with the new evidence. But Ware added that either the prosecutor or the investigator should have seen the holes in the state’s case and stopped the process.
“At the root of every wrongful conviction there is an investigator and a prosecutor who took the case through the system,” Ware said. “This case underscores the tremendous power that prosecutors have. Just because a police department brings them a case, they do not have to take the case or take the case to trial. They have a tremendous responsibility, but they also have almost zero accountability.”
Ramirez, who was 19 when she was accused of gang-raping her nieces with her three co-defendants, said she has no idea what she will do next because this ruling has changed her life completely. Every decision she made was second-guessed because of the conditions of her release, Ramirez said. Every travel plan she made had to be submitted to authorities because although she was not in jail, she was not really free, Ramirez said.
“This makes it a more memorable holiday,” Ramirez, 42, said. “This means we will never be taken away from our families again.”