Lesbians falsely accused of child molestation soon to be set free

Editor's note - I wasn't going to post this morning but when I saw the following, I just had to put the word out. After reading this, check out my post from last night as to how the Family Research Council is using a flawed, out-of-date study to demonize lgbt couples:

In 1994, Elizabeth Ramirez, then 20, was arrested in San Antonio, Texas, for allegedly molesting her two young nieces, aged 7 and 9.

In two bizarre trials, she and three other women, Cassandra Rivera, Kristie Mayhugh and Anna Vasquez, all lesbians, were accused of repeatedly assaulting the girls during a nightmarish week-long orgy in 1994. A medical expert and the prosecutor hinted that the women had been performing a Satanic ritual, and pointed to what they claimed was scientific evidence of their guilt. A judge sent the women to prison -- 35 years for Ramirez, 15 for each of the others.

For more than a decade, the women sought the attention of advocates for prisoners and of the press, insisting that they had been falsely accused, but their calls for help went unanswered. And then, in 2006, a Canadian college instructor named Darrell Otto began researching the case. Otto became convinced that the women were innocent and reached out to the National Center for Reason and Justice, a New York-based organization that pushes for the release of those believed to be wrongly accused of crimes against children. He set in motion an effort to free the women that has finally culminated in victory.

 On Monday, a judge acknowledged that the witness testimony used to convict Ramirez, Mayhugh and Rivera was faulty and agreed to release them under bond. The fourth woman, Vasquez, is already out on parole. Reached by phone, she told The Huffington Post the news was "exciting and overwhelming."

Check out the rest of the story in The Huffington Post.