Cameron County DA Creates Child Abuse Unit

The Cameron County District Attorney has formed a special unit for handling child abuse cases. While, under ordinary circumstances, cases of child abuse were not given any special focus, but filed along with other criminal cases in district courts and had whichever prosecutor was available assigned to case, now things would be different.

Child abuse cases in Cameron County would now be assigned for prosecution to the Child Abuse Unit which is run by prosecutors with experience in child abuse cases, and know how to relate with a child without inflicting further trauma.


One of the prosecutors in the unit, Rollins, said of the DA's move: "What Mr. Saenz has done is he realized the child abuse case is a little bit different because you have a more sensitive victim. You have a minor who may or may not be comfortable testifying. You have to take into account their potential future mental health as well as their current mental state … These cases are also often difficult to investigate and prove. They do require special attention … Now, two prosecutors can focus exclusively on that." The Brownsville Herald reported the interview on Saturday.

There are three members in the Child Abuse Unit and two of the prosecutors, Bailey and Rollins had worked together in a critical child abuse case where one Coronado was convicted of continually making sexual assaults on the victim from the age of 3 until she was 12.

Bailey was the third prosecutor assigned to the case and by that time the victim was so traumatized that she did not want to speak to the newly appointed prosecutor. As Bailey saw it, "At that point, I was the second or third prosecutor to come across this case and she didn't want to talk to me or speak to me because she was let down by so many of the adults in her life and didn't know that I was going to be any different."

The 12-year girl victim in the case had miscarried, and the police had found the bones of the fetus buried in the backyard of a home. Investigation led to Rafael Coronado Jr. who was ultimately convicted and sentenced to seven life sentences without possibility of parole.

However, during Coronado's case and taking into account similar cases, the Cameron County DA's office decided that child victims of sexual abuse need special attention from dedicated prosecutors.