Chain of Custody Contradictions In 'Hidden In Plainview' Sexual Assault Case Raise New Questions
How much MORE is being held from families involved in this case and the general public?
Months after a 6-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in her South Elementry 1st-grade classroom by other 6-year-old peers, little has been enacted to remedy the situation or to protect further incidents from occurring in the Plainview ISD district.
During a regular meeting hosted by Plainview ISD on June 22nd, 2023, the board addressed the findings from the April 19th incident before going into a lengthy closed session.
Plainview ISD Board of Education President, Adam Soto opened the June 22nd meeting by stating the following before introducing the Board’s attorney, Ms. Ann Manning, of Underwood Law Firm, P.C.
Editor’s note: I tried to transcribe this as said by those on video verbatim. This has been edited to the best of my ability without taking from the original context.
“We want to share the findings of the CPS investigation this evening and I just want to let everybody know that we have reserved comments. When I say ‘we’ I’m referring to the board, to the administration. Of these findings, attacks have been made against the campus personnel, the district administration, and the board because we are held at [to] a higher standard of conduct regarding public comments. So it has been more comfortable to state our positions rather than be printed, broadcast, and [on] social media that [sic] accusing of us committing wrongdoings such as hiding information and taking manners into not serious and even encouraging misconduct upon students. The legal standard that we must follow requires [us] to hold our personal opinions. Again, ‘we’ when I say ‘we,’ as a board are to wait to [for] the finding of facts and that’s what it’s all about, finding the facts. Once we found [find] the finding of facts, we can share it with y’all which is going to happen tonight with the appropriate audience,” Soto said.
“We are now at the point of finding the facts and it’s by an impartial third party which has been shared [by] the CPS report has been viewed by multiple levels and in the oversight of the Family Protective Services and it comes to connection with also conjunction with the FBI. So we regret the current which has happened in this district and we are committed to make the adjustments so this would not happen again or in the future. So with that, I’m going to ask our attorney, Miss Ann Manning. First of all, thank you for being here this evening to share with us the CPS findings.”
Ms. Manning approaches the podium and gives the following frigid statement. Notice how not once does she offer any condolences to the victims in this case, nor their family members. In fact, she doesn’t address the community at all, let alone those who have been harmed the most. Not one word of solace is directed to the family members who are still trying to console the 6-year-old who continually has nightmares about the incident and fears returning to the school. However, Manning is extremely sympathetic to what the Plainview ISD board has experienced since the assault occurred.
Also, take note of how Ms. Manning says the school-issued iPad, which contained 34 seconds of footage of the sexual assault against the little girl moved through the chain of custody. This footage was recorded by another 6-year-old student, during the assault.
“Good evening. Can you all hear me? I know we have needed transparency and that’s what I hope to be able to help you with tonight. I want to go through what we did when we get to the finding where we had the CPS report. When we knew of an incident, I was immediately contacted by Dr. Sanchez. We need to report to CPS and to the police and that’s what we did. CPS, once contacted, I instructed Dr. Sanchez to CPS, what we could say and they said nothing. We said, ‘What about to the parents?’, we had previously let them know there had been an incident but did not go into details and they forbade us to say anything.
With that, CPS had their investigation and we were at a standstill. We were not allowed to investigate at that time. Police were investigating. As you all know there was an iPad. And initially, when Dr. Sanchez called me there had been two people who had seen a small portion of that iPad, what was on that iPad, and Dr. Sanchez had not seen that. I immediately instructed him to get that to the police and no one was to look at it. As a result, as we fast forward while CPS conducts their investigation, the police conduct their investigation. FBI comes in. FBI then takes the iPad and we were still instructed not to say anything about CPS or by [sic] the FBI. FBI has completed their investigation and CPS had done as well. The CPS report was determined as to what was the teacher’s responsibility and they found no negligent supervision for any of the children and no sexual abuse.
With that, the FBI turned the iPad back over to the district and instructed us to keep it safe and it was placed with the police in the locked evidence room. Contact had been made all during this time as well with the District Attorney, and at that time the District Attorney instructed Dr. Sanchez to keep the iPad and no one is to look at it until he tells us they can because he might use that as evidence if he needs that in any type of litigation for them. I know this has been tremendously difficult for all of you, for all of the administration dealing with it. Dr. Sanchez in particular.
All I could tell you is this, we strove in every single way to follow the law. We wanted to say things. We wanted to console. We wanted to help, but we were prevented from doing so as a matter of law. I commend your administration. I commend you as a board for standing behind your administration at this time. And I just regret that we had rumors that were rumors, and they were wrong. But maybe we can get some peace about us and some closure for this event.”
Does it make sense to anyone reading this that the FBI would view the child’s sexual assault on the iPad, conduct an investigation, and then hand it to the School Board Superintendent who issued the iPad to the teacher at South Elementary with the footage still available in case the District Attorney needs it later down the road? Does it make any sense that in the attorney’s statement, she contradicts herself saying it was given to the superintendent, and in the next breath says it was locked in an evidence room after being placed with police? Which is it? Did she misspeak?
In what reality would the FBI have evidence of a sexual assault involving minors, which when videotaped by definition becomes child pornography then take the tablet with the evidence still on the device and hand it back over “for safe keeping” just in case? Were copies of this 34-second sexual assault made? How many have now viewed this? I can tell you who hasn’t. The family of the child being sexually assaulted, as well as the family of those who were assaulting her.
The family of the little girl who was sexually assaulted in her own classroom, with her teacher present during the assault on April 19th was not informed until April 27th. What happened during that time period when this iPad was being passed around? During this time the little girl was sent to school each day forced to sit and interact with the same children who sexually assaulted her, in the same room and recorded it on a school-issued iPad. It wasn’t until the family started to notice a change in behavior with the little girl that they began to press her on what was wrong and the little girl recounted the events. The family attempted to receive answers from the school and Plainview ISD administration, but were told “no comment.”
