FORT WORTH, Texas _ A former military couple is in jail, accused of sexually assaulting two children over several years in an effort to teach the kids about sex.
Both the husband and wife are accused of "watching, coaching and instructing" the children on how to perform and participate in sex acts with the adults, according to arrest warrant affidavits.
Jose Ernesto Ramos, and his wife, Annetta Theresa Ramos, allegedly confessed to some of the allegations in a 2014 interview with a Crimes Against Children detective who was fired in July by Fort Worth police over his mishandling of investigations.
Despite the confessions, police say Detective Dennis Hutchins never obtained arrest warrants in the case and lied to investigators with the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service, or NCIS, when they inquired about the status of the case, saying it was under review by prosecutors.
The case was recently reassigned to Detective C.E. Pratt as part of a task force review of Hutchins' cases. Pratt obtained warrants for the couple and they were arrested last week.
Jose Ramos, 40, was charged Wednesday with aggravated sexual assault of a child and continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14.
Annetta Ramos, 31, was charged Wednesday with two counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14.
They were being transferred Thursday to the Tarrant County Jail with bail set at $500,000 each.
Ray Hall Jr., the couple's defense attorney, said he has not yet received any information from police regarding evidence in the case, nor reviewed the alleged video statements made by his clients in 2014.
"I need to look into how the case was handled by the former detective that was investigating," he said Thursday.
The alleged abuse occurred at the couple's home in Fort Worth.
The warrants accuse Annetta Ramos of "watching, coaching and instructing" the female victim on how to perform sexual acts on Jose Ramos and forcing the girl to comply.
Jose Ramos is accused of "watching, coaching and instructing" the boy on how to perform sex acts on Annetta Ramos and participating in the acts. Jose Ramos is also accused of sexually assaulting the girl.
It had allegedly been going on for years before one of the children _ by then a teenager _ made an outcry to a friend in December 2014. That friend alerted a high school counselor, which led Fort Worth police and Child Protective Services to get involved.
In an interview with CPS that same month, the teen girl said Jose Ramos would order her to have sex with him. If she resisted, he threatened to hit her or physically grabbed her, the affidavit states.
The teen boy told CPS that Jose Ramos made him engage in sexual acts with Annetta Ramos. He said Jose Ramos remained in the room during the encounters, instructing him as it occurred, according to the affidavit.
The teen boy said Annetta Ramos stopped sexual contact with him when he was about 13 or 14 because she decided she didn't want to do it anymore. He said Annetta Ramos threatened to leave her husband if he continued, the affidavit states.
The teen boy told CPS that he had decided to come forward about the abuse after the teen girl told him that Jose Ramos intended to have another man have sex with her.
Jose Ramos voluntarily met with Hutchins in late 2014 for an interview that was recorded on video, according to the affidavit.
In the video, Ramos allegedly tells the detective that he had agreed to talk to "make this as painless as possible."
"The suspect stated he planned on pleading guilty to this," the affidavit states.
Ramos told the detective that not all of the allegations made by the two children were true "but quite a bit of it was." He admitted having vaginal, anal and oral sex with the girl multiple times over the years.
"The suspect admits that he and his wife Annetta would participate in teaching the (children) about sex and that he and his wife would remain in the room during the sexual acts," Pratt wrote in the affidavit.
Jose Ramos told Hutchins that he and his wife eventually agreed to stop the sexual acts but that he continued with the girl without his wife's knowledge.
In a separate video recorded interview, Annetta Ramos told Hutchins that her husband had talked to her about teaching the children about sex. She said she was present when her husband was having sex with the girl to make sure things didn't go too far.
"The suspect states that there was nothing forceful, that it was gentle," the affidavit states. "The suspect states that it was not rape or forceful."
The affidavits do not indicate whether Annetta Ramos made any admissions regarding the allegation that she engaged in sexual acts with one of the children.
Hutchins never wrote arrest warrants for the couple but CPS prevented them from further contact with the children.
According to Hutchins' termination letter by the department, an NCIS investigator had contacted the detective in January 2015 and learned that Fort Worth police were conducting an investigation involving the Ramos couple.
It could not immediately be confirmed through military officials Thursday morning how long the couple had served in the military, where they had been based, and the circumstances of their departure.
Facebook pages of the couple indicate they had served in the U.S. Navy Seabees, a construction battalion.
Two months later, another NCIS investigator called Hutchins to check on the status of the case. Hutchins allegedly told him that the case was pending a review by prosecutors.
In June 2016, a third NCIS investigator called Hutchins to ask about the case. Hutchins told that investigator he would confer with the district attorney's office and call him back, but never did, the letter states.
"In an internal affairs interview, Detective Hutchins stated he 'set the case aside' and was waiting to confer with an additional prosecutor with the Tarrant County district attorney's office," the letter states. "In the same interview, Detective Hutchins agreed that from March of 2015 to March of 2016, he never made any additional attempts to contact the Tarrant County district attorney's office or conduct any further investigation in the case."
Hutchins is appealing his termination. His attorney has said the fired detective "hit a point of burnout" in a significantly understaffed unit with crushing caseloads.
The review of Hutchins' cases is continuing.
