Letter To Santa Leads To Sex Abuse Charges

9-Year-Old Texas Girl Asked That A Relative Stop Touching Her And Her Sister

(AP)  A 9-year-old girl's letter to Santa Claus asking that a relative stop touching her and her sister has led to the arrest of a 55-year-old Pharr man on charges of continuous sexual abuse of a young child, according to a newspaper report.

Andres Enrique Cantu, 55, of Pharr, remained in the Hidalgo County Jail Monday night after his arrest Friday. His bond was set at $100,000. It wasn't immediately clear if Cantu had an attorney.

The girl wrote the letter Thursday and turned it in at Cesar Chavez Elementary School, The (McAllen) Monitor reported. It wasn't clear if the letter was for a school assignment.

A probable cause complaint said a counselor at the school reported that the student turned in a wish list to Santa asking that the relative stop touching her and her sister. A day later she was interviewed at the Children's Advocacy Center in Edinburg, which works with abused children, and told authorities about the alleged molestation. Police investigators believe the molestation occurred over a four-year period, according to the complaint.

The newspaper did not identify the relationship of the man to the girl to protect her identity.

The charge against Cantu is a new one, created by the Texas Legislature last year. It is part of a series of changes to the penal code called Jessica's Law, designed to heighten punishments of sexual predators.

If convicted, Cantu could face 25 to 99 years in prison.

[nonyabeeswax]

What is obvious to most victims of child molestation is there are no witnesses other then the child being abused in almost all cases. Otherwise the perp wouldn''t get away with it. The child may not have the words, vocabulary, understanding to say what the molester did to them. But..somehow there are signs, life long questions that go unanswered. Odd things.
The little girl got her Christmas wish. Now the family is in termoil, the accused in denial no doubt and life goes on. Hope she gets help, isn''t that the bottom line? Someone to validate the horror she went through, someone to rescue her and her sister?

What this man did to those little girls might well be done to him in jail. Sick isn''t it?

[avigil2]

A sexual deviant is a sexual deviant. Both are freaks that go against the laws of nature. - Posted by kuei12

How many times must we have to educate others about pedophilia and homosexuality. Neither have nothing to do with the other. My g-ay friends are not pedophiles but law abiding citizens, who love to travel, dress very well and are fit than the average American. Please get a clue!

[abigail4476]

Are you kidding me? If WITNESSES were required, OTHER than the VICTIM, the majority of *** crimes would go unprosecuted. Good grief. Stupidity abounds, apparently.

A victim and EVIDENCE is all that is needed to prosecute a crime--not an eye witness.

[sblake63]

This child protection mania has to stop. Somebody should NEVER be put in jail based on a persons word unless there are OTHER witnesses


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Posted by sblake63

Good to know you''''re such a booster for child molesters. The last thing we should do is listen to a child, right, because there''''s no reason to protect them from child molesting scum. Go f yourself you bleeding heart b#stard.


Posted by clathrate at 04:49 PM : Dec 16, 2008

Didnt say to NOT listen to them. But before we put somebody away for TWENTY FIVE years lets have some EVIDENCE. Somebody''s word (meaning one person VS one person) is NOT evidence just because its a child.

As far as defending them? NOT I think if there is ACTUAL evidence in such a case the DEATH penalty should be used. Bleeding heart? Huh? LOL I am a conservitive. But think should a convivtion ever be based on just one person''s word? Get real.

[Cas2dy]

And Santa granted her Christmas wish.....


Posted by akaKJB

Amen...
This also brings to mind that poor old lady who got beat up real bad and thrown into her own trunk for 26 hours while the teenage thugs drove around in her car. She said she prayed to God and then she prayed to her recently deceased husband to tell God that if she was gonna die, let her die now and if she wasn''t gonna die, then to save her. The cops caught the kids speeding and found the old lady in the trunk. God bless her sweet soul.

[spadeisspade]

While I won''t even argue the merits of calling homosexuality a sexual deviance, let''s say you''re right. But homosexuality isn''t forcing *** on a young child.

[evian_ycnan]

At least in Texas they know how to deal with child molesters. The rest of country is so damned liberal they`d probably give the guy a medal of honor.

Posted by clathrate at 04:46 PM : Dec 16, 2008

That''s because Texas is nothing but child molesters. Lemme see in the past year alone, y`all have had the FLDS, those Dallas freaks that ran a *** club for children, this... say, what are you doing with that child?

[spadeisspade]

Wow. That is officially the most ignorant thing I''ve seen posted on CBS. Congratulations.

Wow...
I want that person to repost now that they''ve had time to actually read the words and either recant, or defend that idiotic sentence.

[clathrate]

This child protection mania has to stop. Somebody should NEVER be put in jail based on a persons word unless there are OTHER witnesses


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Posted by sblake63

Good to know you''re such a booster for child molesters. The last thing we should do is listen to a child, right, because there''s no reason to protect them from child molesting scum. Go f yourself you bleeding heart b#stard.

[akakjb]

And Santa granted her Christmas wish.....

[clathrate]

At least in Texas they know how to deal with child molesters. The rest of country is so damned liberal they''d probably give the guy a medal of honor.

[evian_ycnan]

This is why "age appropriate *** education" is needed starting in kindergarten. Children must be taught was is inappropriate adult conduct and we cannot leave it to the parents to teach that since in many cases it may be the parents molesting the child.

[susanhelit]

The police know what proof there is. However - seems extremely twisted to belive the child put this note in her letter to Santa that she expected no one else to read, and some think it''s a plot to frame an innocent man. Yeah, right.

Most likely the police did the usual thing - talked to her, talked to her sister that was also being "touched" and checked if the man in question had access to the kids, had any record, etc. They don''t put you in jail for just an accusation - there has to be something that fits.

But all this paranoia about ex-wives and other evil types framing poor innocent men - this is a letter to Santa, not some kid telling a police officer a story mommy told her to say.

[sogaman]

I saw a case first hand like this that was sad to the bone. I worked for a city at the time and a fireman was accused of touching his daughter. The other fireman had this guy eat by himself, man the "radio" which was a way to keep him out of sight, he had to sleep on the down stairs sofa instead of his bunk. Turned out he was "saved" from jail because the best friend of his exwife confessed that the ex had the daughter tell people this story becuase she wanted to get even for the divorce. I only hope people have a fair day in court in these cases but too many times just being excused is enough to convict. The fireman in question ended up moving to another state to get away from those who forever thought him guilty.

[neonink]

Yes Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus.

And Merry Christmas.

[sblake63]

So this man sits in jail based on somebody''''''''s word with NO physical evidence? Based on somebody''''''''s WORD. Where''''''''s the proof?

This child protection mania has to stop. Somebody should NEVER be put in jail based on a persons word unless there are OTHER witnesses
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If all he did was ''''touch'''' them in an inappropriate area, there would be no physical evidence. Second, if we were to go off your logic, this kid''''s story can only be true if her sister corroborates her story. That is so phony. Children at that age don''''t know much about being touched in an area unless someone is doing it to them. You should be ashamed for trying to protect the possibly guilty...


Posted by tj217 at 03:32 PM : Dec 16, 2008

Again, a sign of the child advocacy mania where little or no evidence can put somebody away. Btw go to findlaw.com (yes you''ll need to pay for access lol) and you see how many cases where kids even that age are not telling the truth about that subject and even making things up. 100''s and I mean hundreds of false accusation cases can be found on the site,

Kids that age DO know of such things without being "abused", any teacher can tell you the trash that comes out of even 1st graders mouths

End the child advocacy mania!

[czmdm]

So this man sits in jail based on somebody''''s word with NO physical evidence? Based on somebody''''s WORD. Where''''s the proof?

This child protection mania has to stop. Somebody should NEVER be put in jail based on a persons word unless there are OTHER witnesses
Posted by sblake63

You are either 1) an idiot 2) have been on the moon for 25 years and don''t kow anything about the subject matter 3) in fact a pedophile yourself.

You think kids that age make this stuff up on their own?

[sblake63]

So this man sits in jail based on somebody''s word with NO physical evidence? Based on somebody''s WORD. Where''s the proof?

This child protection mania has to stop. Somebody should NEVER be put in jail based on a persons word unless there are OTHER witnesses

[susanhelit]

Why the little girl didn''t tell her mother? Well, often enough because the molester tells her that her mother will be hurt, blame the child, or will be killed, if she talks to her. Children don''t know any better.

And age appropriate s-e-x education for children is a good thing for this very reason - pedophiles should not have free rein over any child whose parents have failed to teach them about bad touches and who they can talk to. Yeah, every parent should tell their kids - but if they don''t, or if it doesn''t sink in, schools the child''s safety should not just be compromised because we wish to be too lazy to teach this subject, or because we don''t wish to intrude on the rights of ''parents'' who think that their child is immune (or who wish to abuse them without telling them that it''s wrong).


Too bad she didn''t know of the numerous other people she could tell, or was too scared to tell them - but thank goodness she thought she could put it in a letter to Santa!

[wlmrtpatriot]

I suppose this was a children''s school project. I remember doing that in school. In this case her teachers were involved and her uncle is now in jail.
Good.