‘San Antonio 4' Testify as they Seek Exoneration

Three members of the so-called San Antonio 4, a group of women who were convicted of sexually assaulting two young girls in 1994, testified Wednesday that they are innocent.

Anna Vasquez, Elizabeth Ramirez and Kristie Mayhugh are among the four women convicted more than 15 years ago of assaulting Ramirez's nieces. They are now seeking exoneration.

All four have denied any assault occurred. The younger accuser has since recanted her rape claim, and a doctor's testimony during the initial trial has been discredited.

State District Judge Pat Priest, who presided over the original trial for Vasquez, Mayhugh and Cassandra Rivera, is presiding over this week's hearing and will forward a recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. That recommendation could range from declaring all four women innocent or sending them back to prison, the San Antonio Express-News. There's no timeline for when the Court of Criminal Appeals may act on any recommendation.

The four were convicted based on the testimony of two of Ramirez's nieces, one 7 and the other 9. Prosecutors argued at the original trial that the girls were visiting Ramirez for a week at her San Antonio apartment in 1994 when the four women bound and raped the children during successive attacks and then threatened to kill them if they spoke about the assaults. Each of the women, who now range in age from 39 to 42, was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and indecency with a child. Prosecutors at the time noted the women's homosexuality in the effort to secure their conviction.

But their defense attorney, Mike Ward, points to two subsequent developments that he says should compel the criminal appeals court to exonerate them: the younger niece in 2012 recanted her testimony, and prosecutors later determined that forensic evidence used to convict them was based on "junk science." That forensic evidence included testimony from a doctor who said vaginal injuries suffered by the 9-year-old could have been caused by an assault, but the doctor's conclusions have since been discredited by current findings on science, attorneys have said.

The two developments led Mayhugh, Ramirez and Rivera to be released on bond in November 2013 as their case progressed in court. Vasquez was released on parole in November 2012. All four have passed polygraph tests.

Mayhugh, Rivera and Vasquez had initially received a 15-year sentence while Ramirez was sentenced to 37 years.

Bexar County prosecutor Rico Valdez has previously acknowledged that the convictions should be vacated but has disagreed with Ward that the women should formally be declared not guilty, a distinction that would allow them to collect money Texas pays to the wrongfully imprisoned.

Vasquez testified Wednesday that over the course of the weeklong visit by the girls in 1994 there was perhaps only one time when all four women were together with the children because of different work schedules.

Ramirez has argued that the accusations 20 years ago were ginned up by her sister's husband, who she said had developed an infatuation with her. Ramirez's sister, who's the mother of the two accusers, testified Wednesday that her now ex-husband has accused others of sexually assaulting children.

Vasquez in an earlier interview with the Express-News expressed gratitude toward the prosecutors now involved in the case.

"I really feel in my heart that they are actually trying to find the truth," Vasquez told the paper. "I'm actually surprised because of the way it worked out in our first trial. I'm very grateful that they are keeping an open mind."