Santa Ana couple face multiple charges of sexual abuse with three foster children.
A Santa Ana foster mother was charged with covering up sexual abuses committed by her husband.
Maria Hernandez, 59, was charged with accessory after the fact at Orange County Superior Court. She pleaded not guilty.
If found guilty, Hernandez faces up to three years in prison. Judge Craig E. Robinson set bail for $20,000.
Relatives of the defendant held back tears in the arraignment area as the judge listed the charges against her. Hernandez remained stone-faced throughout the proceeding.
Robinson placed a gag order preventing the defendants, and the alleged victims from speaking to one another.
The Orange County District Attorney accuses Hernandez of failing to alert authorities after witnessing her husband raping a 11-year old girl, coercing the victim to lie to social workers and lying to family members.
Hernandez is accused of seeing her husband Felipe raping an 11-year old girl, coercing the victim to lie to social workers and lying to other family members about the abuse.
Maria Hernandez is also suspected of cutting one child’s hair and threatening the victim to lie about the incident.
Her husband, Felipe Hernandez, 66, was arrested in February and charged with multiple accounts of rape, sexual assault and lewd acts. At least three foster children have been reported, all minors at the time of the crime.
He is being held on $1 million bail and is scheduled for a pre-trail on April 22 at the Santa Ana Central Justice Center.
Maria Hernandez is scheduled for a pre-trial on March 22.
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