In May 1990, a woman contacted police in Austin, Texas and said that her 8-year-old daughter had been sexually assaulted by the girl’s father, 27-year-old Michael Trevino.
The girl lived with her mother and stepfather in another state and from time to time, the girl came to stay with Trevino in Austin. The girl said she had been sexually assaulted three years earlier by Trevino when she was in kindergarten.
In August 1990, after a medical examination showed some evidence of vaginal penetration, Trevino was charged with sexual assault and was released on bond.
In November 1993, Trevino pled no contest to a charge of indecency with a child and he was placed on probation for eight years. He was required to register with the Texas Sex Offender Registry. Trevino successfully completed his probation without incident.
In 2009, Trevino’s daughter, then 27, recanted her claim that Trevino had assaulted her. She said that she was actually being molested by her stepfather, but her mother refused to believe her. She said that she became convinced that it was her father—Trevino—and not her stepfather who had assaulted her.
Trevino’s wife (he had since remarried) accompanied his daughter to the Travis County District Attorney’s Office where she told authorities that she had lied when she said Trevino molested her. The prosecution informed attorneys at the Actual Innocence Clinic at the University of Texas in Austin of the recantation and the clinic began investigating Trevino’s case.
Trevino took and passed a polygraph examination administered by the Austin Police Department regarding whether he had sexual contact with his daughter.
The daughter submitted to a forensic interview conducted by a clinical and forensic psychologist with extensive experience in sexual assault cases. The psychologist found her explanation credible and the recantation to be truthful.
On May 24, 2012, in response to a motion filed by the Travis County District Attorney’s office to vacate and dismiss Trevino’s conviction, Judge Cliff Brown dismissed the charge. Judge Brown specifically found that the daughter’s recantation was credible and truthful, and that Trevino was innocent of the charge for which he was convicted.
Trevino later received $423,000 in compensation for the 20 years he was on the Texas Sex Offender Registry.
– Maurice Possley
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