Foster parents accused of sex abuse of children had been investigated 16 times

The Department of Family Protective Services answering ABC-7’s questions about the foster parents now accused of sexually abusing children in their care.

ABC-7 has confirmed the story is much more disturbing than originally thought.

Sandra and Antonio Huerta have had a total of 36 foster children and while digging for more information Tuesday, the ABC-7 I-Team is shedding light on what appears to be a problem within the system.

The search continues for Antonio Huerta. The 62-year-old is a wanted man.

If you see him, call El Paso Police. His 55-year-old wife is already in jail charged with aggravated assault of a child and indecency with a child.

On Tuesday, ABC-7 confirmed the Huerta’s have been investigated by DFPS more than a dozen times over the past decade. ABC-7 uncovered, with the help of DFPS, 16 investigations of the Huerta’s as foster parents since 2005.

“We’re thankful that someone finally spoke up,” said DFPS spokesman Paul Zimmerman. “Someone had the courage to finally speak up to say what was happening to them.”

Zimmerman confirmed the agency has investigated the Huerta’s 13 times over a 10-year period, before finally finding “reason to believe” the Huerta’s allegedly sexually abused foster children from 2000 to 2002.

“This foster home is now closed and these people can’t hurt kids anymore,” Zimmerman said.

But should it have been closed years ago?

“The first 13 investigations were ruled out because the evidence could not support the allegations of reason to believe,” Zimmerman said. “Our burden of proof is 51 percent. You can’t find reason to believe based on a gut feeling alone. There has to be evidence supporting the allegations.”

The Huerta’s are accused of molesting a boy and girl who were in their care 12 years ago. Now adults, the accusers came forward in September saying they were abused in the couple’s East El Paso home.

The then 11-year-old boy says he was forced to watch pornography and have sex with Sandra Huerta. The girl, just seven then, was allegedly forced to watch pornography while lying in bed with the couple and told to mimic what she saw.

ABC-7 asked Zimmerman if the agency thinks mistakes were made.

“We do,” he said. “As an agency we are trying to improve all the time. This case right now has already been reviewed by our office of child safety. Last year DFPS actually strengthened the rules concerning the vetting of foster homes.”

“I’ve worked with hundreds of foster parents and i’ve never seen anything this egregious … ever,” said Richard Deck, a certified child welfare law specialist who used to work as an attorney for Child Protective Services. “I’ve actually met these foster parents before in another case. Obviously, because of confidentiality, I can’t tell you about the child or what the facts were. They seemed like decent people to me and apparently a lot of people had that impression of them over the years.”