How Could You? Hall of Shame-Felipe Hernandez and Maria Esther Hernandez UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Santa Ana, California, foster-adopt father Felipe Hernandez, 66, has been arrested for allegations of sexual molestation of 2 daughters that he adopted through foster care. He remains in jail on $100,000 bail.

“Police say a videotape and photos played a major role in his arrest.

Police allege Felipe Hernandez sexually assaulted two girls, both foster children placed in his care.  He and his wife later adopted them.

“He raped them, he sodomized them, just a myriad of charges,” said Santa Ana Police Corporal Anthony Bertagna.

Police say they started investigating last month when one of the girls, now 15 years old, told a school counselor.  The abuse allegedly took place in Hernandez’s Santa Ana home going back to 2006, when she was 9 years old.

Authorities allege a video and photos also show the 66-year-old engaged in sex acts with his 17-year-old adopted daughter, also a foster child.  Police arrested Hernandez last month.  At the same time they removed three kids from the house, according to Bertagna.

Police say the third child was also a foster kid who the Hernandezes later adopted.

A woman who said she was Hernandez’s stepdaughter did not want to be identified.  When asked what her mother thinks of the charges, she said she believed the allegations were true.

She would not explain any further, and neither would Hernandez’s wife.  She left Felipe’s court hearing with her other biological daughter who is not alleging abuse.  The other stepdaughter says Hernandez never abused her either.

“It’s my understanding that as of 2012 this particular family was no longer allowed to be foster-care parents,” said Bertagna.

Asked if the Orange County Social Services Agency was aware of any complaints before last month, director Dr. Michael Riley said: “We cannot talk specifically about any particular case because welfare institution code forbids us to do so.

“If it’s substantiated sexual molestation or sexual assault, the child is almost always removed,” said Riley.

Riley says monthly visits are done to monitor children in foster homes.  In this case monitoring would have ended in 2008 when the girls were adopted.

Police say while Social Services is investigating, detectives are trying to determine whether Felipe’s wife should face charges.”

Santa Ana foster father accused of sex with adopted children

[KABC 2/22/13 by Eileen Frere]

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Update: Maria Esther Hernandez, Felipe’s wife, has now been arrested.

“An Orange County couple has been arrested in the alleged rape of a child under their care, according to the Santa Ana Police Department.

Felipe Hernandez, who was arrested last month, has been charged with 11 felony counts, including committing a forcible lewd act on a child, aggravated sexual assault, and unlawful sexual intercourse.

The 66-year-old is accused of sexually assaulting three girls under his care from 2006 to 2012.

His wife, 59-year-old Maria Esther Hernandez, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of being an accessory in the rape of one of the victims.

She allegedly cut the girl’s hair and threatened her to lie about the incident, according to police.

Maria Hernandez, who is being held on $20,000 bail, is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

Felipe Hernandez is being held on $1 million bail. He’s due in court April 22 for a pre-trial hearing.

If convicted, he faces 65 years to life in prison”

Santa Ana Foster Parents Arrested In Alleged Rape Of Child

[CBS Los Angeles 3/13/13]

Update 2: “A former Southern California foster parent was sentenced on Friday to serve nearly 19 years to life in prison for raping and sexually abusing a half dozen girls who were 9 to 15 years old while in his care, prosecutors said.

Felipe Hernandez, 68, pleaded guilty earlier this month to multiple felony counts of aggravated sexual assault on a child, lewd acts on a minor, child pornography and other sex offenses stemming from crimes committed over the course of six years, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

The abuse, which ranged from groping to rape, came to light in the summer of 2012 when a relative of Hernandez discovered a digital memory card containing video of him molesting one of the girls and reported it to the Santa Ana Police Department, the prosecutor’s office said.

A spokeswoman for district attorney’s office, Roxi Fyad, said the Hernandez case marked one of the more egregious instances of serial sexual abuse in the county’s foster care system. “He violated his position of trust,” Fyad said.

Two of his victims confronted Hernandez at his sentencing in court, saying the trauma they suffered had led them both to attempt suicide but that they had since moved on to “a better place in their lives,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Hernandez was sentenced to a term of 18 years and eight months to life in prison. His wife, Maria Esther Hernandez, 61, was sentenced separately in 2013 to three months in jail and three years of probation for her role as an accessory after the fact in trying to cover up the abuse, prosecutors said.”

 

California foster dad gets 19 years to life for sex abuse of six girls

[Business Insider  2/27/15 by Reuters]