Vermont and Civil Commitment?
12-5-2013 Vermont:
This Thanksgiving, Elizabeth Ramirez, Cassandra Rivera, Kristie Mayhugh and Anna Vasquez — aka the San Antonio Four — had something momentous to be grateful for. On November 18, three of them walked out of prison. Vasquez, who had been released last year, had her parole restrictions lifted.
The four friends, all lesbians, have served more than a dozen years for violent sexual acts committed on Ramirez’s nieces, then 7 and 9. All along they have maintained their innocence and turned down plea deals.
In 1994, when the alleged acts took place, the “satanic ritual abuse” panic — when allegations proliferated of strange and devilish sexual rites practiced on children, particularly in daycare — still resonated in Texas. Homosexuals were alleged to be habitual abusers. An industry of dubious specialized therapy and investigation methods had developed.
The four women were young. They had no criminal records and were working or taking college courses. Rivera and Ramirez were mothers.
The stories the nieces told were bizarre — the women were topless; they raped the girls with tampons coated with gel and white powder. A reporter later said the girls’ statements “sounded like a porn movie … a man’s version of what women do in their spare time.”
Or, more to the point, what lesbians do.
In the courtroom, the prosecutor suggested as much, and the defense attorney didn’t object.
The prosecution’s medical expert, pediatrician Nancy Kellogg, testified that marks on the older girl’s hymen indicated abuse. In her notes, the doctor also conjectured that the alleged acts might be “satanic related.”
Given the social atmosphere and the defendants’ sexuality, the jury had no trouble believing the improbable allegations.
Three of the women were sentenced to 15 years. Ramirez, the alleged “ringleader,” faced 37 and a half.
But they were innocent. No crime ever occurred.
