Update (1 p.m.): Judge Mary Roman granted bail to Elizabeth Ramirez, Anna Vasquez, Cassie Rivera, and Kristie Mayhugh after the ‘San Antonio 4’ have spent as long as 15 years in prison for a crime that they claim never occurred.
The 3 women still incarcerated were not in the 175th district court today, and all the paperwork for the case was signed outside of public view. The Defense’s Mike Ware made the announcement that proved anticlimax for a packed court room that normally Is sparsely filled.
The 4 were accused by Elizabeth Ramirez’s nieces of sexually assaulting them nearly two decades ago now, a claim one of the girls would recant as an adult, saying she had been forced to lie by her father.
The District Attorney’s Office agreed that key forensic testimony and evidence was flawed and did not dispute the outcome of today’s hearing on those grounds, but the actual innocence of the women the state still disputes. Friday, Bexar County District Attorney, Susan Reed stated if the Court of Criminal Appeals rules the 4 can have a new trial, she will not proceed with it, effectively freeing the women for good.
Anna Vasquez, the only one of the convicted to be present today, was paroled a year ago under what Ware calls draconian parole stipulations.
These stipulations will raised as a result of the this hearing.
The case now is sent to the Court Criminal of Criminal Appeals in Austin. It has no date set nor deadline currently.
Original Post (11/15): Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed has stated she will not seek a new trial for the San Antonio 4 if the Court of Criminal Appeals says it is warranted.
