Abuse case highlights attorneys’ challenges
The Houston woman told police her boyfriend had brutalized her, broken her nose and trafficked her to johns on the infamous Bissonnet Track; he’d even hit her in the face with a hairbrush.
But when she was called to testify last summer at a second bond hearing for Roemello Malik Burros, the girlfriend pleaded for his release, telling a Harris County judge in a flat affect that she’d actually hit herself in the face with the hairbrush. She’d made up the story about him assaulting her because she was upset and wanted to punish him, according to the prosecutor at the hearing.
The judge put Burros back in jail despite the victim’s recantation. He ultimately pleaded guilty to pimping out the woman and for having a gun in his possession. The judge sentenced the 25-year-old former Katy football star last week to 12 years in prison — a term tough enough to satisfy prosecutors from the county’s trafficking unit.
The Burros case highlights a pattern that dogs prosecutors seeking to take pimps off the street: Their best evidence falls apart because victims are locked in a cycle of violence, intimidation, coercion, isolation and abuse. A trafficking victim who endures trauma and domestic battery will summon the courage and independence to make an outcry and, by the time the matter comes before a judge, the person will recant the allegations. Lawyers in this field say this phenomenon is so common, they’ve come up with creative ways to work around victims’ conflicting accounts and still make a decent case to a judge or jury.
“The cycle of violence is like a roller coaster of dueling emotions of love, hope, and all out fear,” said Chau Nguyen, spokesperson for Houston Area Women’s Center, which received 45,904 calls to its domestic hotline in 2020. “Survivors get the gas lighting runaround from their traffickers, and, far too often, they are either terrorized or too traumatized to testify against their abusers.”
Burros’ defense lawyer declined to comment.
Back in high school, Burros was best known for his accomplishments on the gridiron — a talented running back with a 36-inch verti
cal leap who could run the 40-yard dash in 4.41 seconds. He was expected to step in at slotback in 2013, the fall of his senior year for the Morton Ranch Mavericks and carry the ball to the end zone in the team’s triple-option offense. In some instances, captured on his highlight reel, it took four players on the opposing team to take him down.
A recruiting profile on ncsasports.org offers what appears to be Burros’ personal statement that fall to potential college scouts.
In it, he talks about coming from a family with a “legacy and tradition” in football, and he says he’s been in love with the same “since I was youngin.”
“Football opened my eyes and helped me threw the hardest times in my life. Without football I don’t know how else I would’ve became a strong man.”
The lawyers in the trafficking case did not know if Burros ever played college ball.
Two years after graduation, Burros was a passenger in a black Ford Mustang headed northbound, halfway between McAllen and Corpus Christi, when a Border Patrol official stopped the car. A K-9 alerted to something in the trunk. Federal agents found two men inside who were in the U.S. without authorization.
Burros did a stint in federal prison for that incident. He reconnected with the woman in 2018, said Assistant District Attorney Sara Siegel. Burros told her to quit her job at an auto parts store and began trafficking her on Bissonnet and online, the prosecutor said.
Their relationship became increasingly violent. When the woman contacted law enforcement in May 2020, the pair were living in a Galleria-area hotel. State police said he had “a wad of cash in one pocket and a gun
in the other,” according to the prosecutor. A photo of the woman that day shows her swollen face, black eye and lacerations. She told police he’d hit her and forced her to have sex with customers, Siegel said.
At a bond hearing the woman backpedaled, saying Burros never trafficked her or forced her to do anything. Burros’ father and sister also asked the judge to let him go, Siegel said. The judge released Burros in July and ordered him to keep his distance from the woman.
The woman, who had a daughter with Burros, outcried a second time in a matter of weeks.
HPD brought him on allegations he violated the protective order when he beat her in the face with a hairbrush. He also tried to peddle her to johns out on the Bissonnet Track. That time, police said, he had a gun on his lap.
The same scene repeated itself in court, with witnesses pleading for his release. This time state District Judge Hazel Jones set a high bond.
The woman testified a third time in support of Burros, asking for his bond to be reduced in February 2021. He wanted to spend time with his 2-year-old who had been diagnosed with brain cancer. The judge declined again. The child is now in remission, Siegel said.
Siegel, who is with the DA’s human trafficking unit, said she’s seen this pattern many times with survivors.
“Maybe half of those who outcry recant,” she said. “You get kind of creative when you don’t have a victim or you have a victim who is recanting.”
Siegel didn’t want try the case and have the key witness saying nothing happened. So she built the case on texts between the woman and Burros that showed Burros was trafficking her. They also had photographs. In other cases of domestic violence, they rely on testimony from the nurse who administered the victim’s rape kit.
Burros pleaded guilty to pimping the woman and possession of the gun. At Burros’ sentencing hearing, his lawyer asked for inpatient rehab and for deferred adjudication. The mother of his child, now 22, asked the judge to release him on probation. A sexual assault nurse examiner then testified it’s very common for women to recant after an outcry.
The judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison. Upon release, Burros will be a registered sex offender.