Ex-La Joya schools employee cleared in sex abuse case

EDINBURG — Attorneys described it as “one of the most serious sexual abuse (allegations) the county has ever seen.”

But the case against Armando Silvestre Gutierrez added up to little more than smoke and mirrors, an Hidalgo County jury found Friday.

As many as 80 students at the La Joya school district’s William J. Clinton Elementary School in Peñitas claimed the former computer lab proctor had molested them last year, administrators said. Of those, prosecutors found 11 on which they built their case.

But after a weeklong trial — in which Gutierrez’s defense asserted that a “mob mentality” had taken over the school — jurors ultimately decided there were too many questions surrounding what may or may not have happened on May 28, 2008.

“There were wild inconsistencies,” his attorney – Sergio Sanchez – said. “The mothers that came in to testify were caught over and over again in half-truths and, in some cases, flat-out lies.”

La Joya school district police arrested Gutierrez in February — nearly nine months after a group of first-grade girls first reported he had touched their genitals through their clothing in exchange for Jolly Rancher candies.

While the time delay later became the subject of a lawsuit against the district, administrators testified Friday that they saw problems with the allegations from the beginning.

Complaints from dozens of parents flowed into the Clinton Elementary office, the school’s former principal, Adriana Villarreal, testified Friday. All alleged Gutierrez had molested their child during a short period over three days.

“It couldn’t have happened like that,” she said. “Someone would have seen something. None of the adults (at the school) saw anything.”

According to the 11 purported victims who testified at trial, Gutierrez approached them May 28 when their teacher left the computer lab for less than 10 minutes.

The similarities in their stories and past behavior from some of the parents involved led Villarreal to conclude the accounts were made up, she told jurors. When asked by prosecutors whether she would come to the same conclusion if dealing with parents in wealthier communities, she responded:

“I don’t think they live in the desperation these people live in. I don’t think most of them are illiterate or ignorant — which is why (the alleged victims’ parents) do most of what they do.”

Gutierrez’s attorney Sergio Sanchez went further, pointing out fliers the alleged victim’s parents had used to recruit potential plaintiffs for their lawsuit against the school district. The children were coached on what to say in that civil case to receive a payout from the La Joya school system, he suggested.

“What was going on at this school was approaching a level of insanity,” he said. “A mob mentality took over that colonia.”

Prosecutors could not be reached after Friday’s verdict. But earlier in the day Randy Ortega, an Hidalgo County assistant district attorney, balked at the notion the children had made up their stories.

“Did they all get together one day and decide, ‘Let’s have a lawsuit?’” he said. “How evil would that be for a parent to sit their children (on the witness stand) and have them lie about something so scarring?”

It remains unclear how Friday’s verdict might affect the parents’ ongoing civil case. Their attorney, Orlando Jimenez, did not return calls for comment.

As of late Friday evening, Gutierrez remained in the Hidalgo County Jail, where he has been held since arrest. He was expected to be released that night.