SAN ANTONIO — We often show viewers the moment an accused sex offender is handcuffed and taken away by police. Now, KENS 5 is taking a look at the other side of the criminal justice system in Bexar County.
A family has waited four years for justice in a child sex assault case, but the child predator recently cut off his ankle monitor and fled.
*Trigger warning: details of this article may be disturbing.*
"When a child has been through something and they have details that they are way too young to know about ... my daughter was seven," a mother teared up.
KENS 5 is not releasing the woman's name to protect the victim.
In September of 2019, the woman says her daughter made an outcry.
"I called my friend who is a licensed counselor and said, 'What do I do?'" she said. "She told me, 'You need to call CPS.' So, I tried calling CPS but it was a weekend, so I was waiting for someone to call me back. The next thing I did was call the police department's special victims unit and was told someone would get back to me on Monday. One of the other people I called happens to be a registered nurse and she has done the rape crisis and worked with victims. She said, 'You need to go to the hospital now.'"
The woman says the hospital called police.
"About 15 minutes later, an officer showed up and I told the story again," she said. "The doctor visited with my daughter and examined her. We stepped out to the hall and the officer asked me, 'Is he a registered sex offender?' My heart kind of stopped and I said, 'No, I don't know. He is married to my friend.' When I am dating someone, I do a background check on them, but he had just gotten married to my friend. [The officer] typed some things into his phone and he turned it around and said, 'Is this him?' I fell up against the wall and said 'I didn't know.'"
Authorities identified the registered sex offender as Sean Joseph Haynes, 47.
In 2008, Haynes was sentenced to five years in prison for sodomizing an 11-year-old girl in Missouri. The prosecution there took less than a year.
More than a decade later, Haynes was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child in Bexar County. The victim's mother says the trial has been pushed back more than a dozen times.
“I kept waiting and kept waiting," she said. "We are currently, as of today, 1,523 days since [the outcry].”
The victim's mother says she had been friends with Haynes' wife for years. She claims her former friend knew Haynes was a registered sex offender, but decided to withhold that information so people 'wouldn't jump to the wrong conclusions.'
She says she trusted the couple to babysit her children.
“[My daughter] said, 'You told me to listen to the adults that you put in charge,'" said the victim's mother. "That hit me like a mack truck because she’s right, I did. I did tell her to listen to him and his wife. If I could go back and change that, I would. I have since told her, 'If I don't do it, if sissy doesn't do it, if bubba doesn't do it, nobody is supposed to do it.'"
Haynes pleaded guilty over the summer, according to the victim's family. However, right before his sentencing, authorities say he cut off his ankle monitor and fled.
A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
The victim’s mother is furious with the justice system.
“If I could give two impact statements, one would be to [Haynes]," she said. "The other one I would give to the judges and the district attorney's office because they failed. They failed my child, they failed all children."
She is pushing for a 25-year sentence, telling KENS 5 her daughter has been handed a life sentence.
"We have been told through counseling she is going to have several realizations along the road and it's going to hit her at several different stages of her life. She already asks, 'Why me?'" the victim's mom said.
Holding back sobs, the woman told KENS 5 her daughter would feel safer with Haynes behind bars, but it's about more than that.
“She looked at me and just said, ‘I don’t want another little girl to have the memories I have," she said.
If you see Haynes, call police.
To access the state's sex offender map, click HERE.
Mothers of Sexually Abused Children, a support group, offers information on the types of predators and how to protect children. For information, click HERE.