KTSM News – Child sexual assault victim gets justice while another still waits for decades

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks applauded his team for a successful prosecution of William Denney who sexually assaulted Reanna Meraz when she was 11.

Meraz, now 23 years old, spoke up about over a decade of struggle and effort to seek justice.

“I’m 23 now and what happened to me caused a lot of issues within my life. But I wasn’t going to let him stop me. And I wanted my justice,” she said.

Meraz explained that her case was reportedly mishandled by law enforcement and took so long to get to court.

She encouraged other victims to speak up and report their abusers.

Unlike Meraz, Jeremiah, alleged child sexual assault victim, has not gotten justice yet.

He says that he was sexually assaulted as a teen by Arturo Blanco, a man featured on America’s Most Wanted back in 2011.

His case has been pending for 28 years and has gone through the hands of three different district attorneys.

In 2021, Jeremiah said D.A. Yvonne Rosales’s office contacted him that they were finally able to locate Blanco, but shortly after, they said it was a mistake and that they will keep searching.

Jeremiah then took matters into his own hands and looked for Blanco himself.

He was able to locate him in El Paso County in Colorado.

Blanco was arrested in September of 2023 and is currently in jail in Colorado waiting for his extradition.

KTSM’s legal sources say if Blanco is not extradited after 30 days of his incarceration at El Paso County in Colorado he will be released.

Blanco’s extradition hearing was set for Dec. 22 which is also the deadline for his extradition.

Hicks said the extradition is a routine process.

“Extradition hearing held in Colorado is a very quick process. It’s just a matter of proving that he’s the same person. It has nothing to do with the underlying allegations,” he said.

However, Jeremiah is still concerned the case would not move forward after waiting for over 2 decades.

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