San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Lead singer of Tejano band on trial in child sex abuse case
trial of Jesse Farias Jr., the former front man of the popular San Antonio Tejano band La Tropa F now accused of sexually assaulting a relative, began Friday with allegations of family conflict.
Farias, 43, is charged with three counts of sexual assault of a child. The incidents are alleged to have occurred in 2019, beginning when the girl was about 15. If convicted of the second-degree felony, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
The teen was 16 when she made the outcry that led to the charges, telling a friend following a party to celebrate Farias’ wedding anniversary in February 2021. She now is 18. The Express-News does not identify minors or victims involved in sexual assault cases.
In her opening statement, prosecutor Meredith MacIntire told the jury evidence at the trial will show Farias was “someone she trusted,” and that the incidents have “changed not just one, but multiple families” that once were very close.
MacIntire said the victim “had finally had enough of the painful truth of what (Farias) did to her for several years. She had reached the breaking point.”
Farias and his wife, Yvette, had been celebrating their anniversary with friends and family members when Farias inappropriately touched the girl while they were in the backyard at the home of the girl’s best friend, MacIntire said.
The girl’s friend told her older brother, who alerted their mother, and police were called.
Farias’ defense attorney, Sylvia Cavazos, in her opening statement, said no DNA tests or sexual assault examinations were conducted in the case and implied that the outcry hapThe
pened because of feuding between families.
“You can’t judge a book by its cover,” Cavazos told the panel. “As the trial unfolds, you’ll see a different picture.”
Jurors heard testimony from the first San Antonio police officer to arrive at the house, Valentin Figueroa, who is now a detective.
He took statements from the girl, her friend and a few other adults but at the time, he said, he only was told of previous incidents, not the one the two teens later said had occurred that night.
Figueroa said the adults at the home appeared to be “distraught, in disbelief ” about the accusations. The victim appeared “sad” while recalling the events, he said, and “stared into empty space” while her friend spoke to police.
In her cross-examination, Cavazos chided Figueroa for not interviewing everyone in the home, which would have provided more information for investigating detectives. Figueroa apologized for not doing so.
Later Friday, the victim’s mother took the stand and said she routinely took the girl and other young relatives to school in the mornings, and that Farias was responsible for picking them up in the afternoon. She said their families were “close-knit” and that she has known Farias for almost 30 years.
“I absolutely trusted him,” she told the jury. “He was really involved with my girls. If they needed him, they’d call him.”
In 2019 and 2020, when she was going through a divorce, she noticed that her daughter “wasn’t eating and seemed distant,” but would not say anything when asked if there was something wrong, the witness said.
She got an urgent call to go to the friend’s house the night her daughter made the outcry, and when she arrived, she and her daughter went outside to talk, she said.
“She was crying, and said, ‘Jesse has been touching me,’” the girl’s mother said.
Farias was the lead singer of La Tropa F after the turn of the millennium and fronted the ensemble for more than a decade. The band was formed in San Antonio by his father and uncles in the 1960s and was known for years as Los Hermanos Farias. Its album “Right On Track” won Best Album of the Year at the 1993 Tejano Music Awards.
The trial is being heard in the 379th District Court, with Judge Ron Rangel presiding.