How Could You? Hall of Shame-Luis Baez

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 San Antonio, Texas, foster father Luis Baez,55, “was convicted by a jury Monday of having continually sexually abused two of the girls.” He has taken “in more than 40 children over the years.”

Luis Baez was taken into custody after the verdict was read and now faces punishment of 25 years to life in prison for each count. He is set to be sentenced by state District Judge Philip Kazen next month. Jurors deliberated for about three hours before returning the guilty verdict.

Three girls testified against Baez during the trial. They told jurors Baez raped them after telling them he wanted them to know what sex was like before they entered high school. The abuses of two of the girls occurred between 2007 and 2009, and a third accuser came forward saying she had been assaulted in 2004.

“She told you he would pray over them at night,” said prosecutor Catherine Wilson during closing arguments, reminding jurors of one girl’s testimony. “It’s dark, the lights are out, ‘Lord please let them sleep peacefully,’ all the while sticking his fingers in her private part.”

One of the girls told jurors that after an assault Baez told her to wash the bloody sheets and to tell his wife that the stains came from a nosebleed.

Defense attorney Roland Garcia argued that the three accusers weren’t believable because of inconsistencies in their stories. He also told jurors that the girls may have been resentful that they hadn’t been adopted by Baez, giving them motivation to lie about the abuses.

“A teenage girl bent on revenge comes up with a plot, and you can tell it wasn’t very sophisticated because they couldn’t even keep their stories straight,” he said.

Wilson addressed the argument about the possibility the accusers lied during her closing arguments.

“Children lie to get out of trouble,” Wilson said. “Children don’t lie so that they have to go to the police. Children don’t lie so they can sit through the horrible painful experience of telling you what happened to them the first time they had sex.””

Foster father convicted of molesting two girls[San Antonio 4/14/14 by Michelle Casady]

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