South Padre Island based attorney, Robert Collins, represents a 16-year-old girl who claims she was raped at the Wendy’s hamburger restaurant located on the 2300 block of Boca Chica Blvd. in Brownsville.
Collins said the teen was sexually assaulted on at least two different occasions by former manager Carlos Castillo.
The fast food restaurant recently shut its doors and signs were posted at the business alerting customer’s that the business had lost its lease.
Castillo was arrested and charged with the crime in the fall of 2011, and was recently indicted.
"The child that we first came to represent is under psychiatric care,” Collins said. “(The alleged assault) has had a significant detrimental effect on her life, and we don’t want it to happen again."
Collins said that since Action 4 News first broke the story about the claims, two more girls have come forward with similar allegations against Castillo and other managers.
One of the girls, Collins said, was 16-years-old and the other 17-years-old, at the time they were allegedly victimized.
"One of them was sexually assaulted,” Collins said. “There was an attempt to rape her, but that was unsuccessful. She was able to fight it off, and apparently there were enough witnesses around where it didn't happen."
Collins claims Wendy’s International, Incl. the parent company based in Ohio, and Exelco, Inc./South-Wen, Inc., the franchise and owner of the Brownsville location out of Laredo, refuse to take responsibility for the alleged crimes.
He said he’s pushing for authorities to investigate if appropriate measures were taken by the Wendy's franchise regarding the victims’ allegations.
"What we have here is a systemic problem,” Collins said.
According to the attorney, several Wendy's managers knew these rapes had occurred but failed to do anything about it, in order avoid investigations of other supposed crimes.
“What we understand, is that these managers were also involved in theft of money from the stores,” Collins claims. “They were working together and there was money that was taken that they shared in.
Maybe some of the managers weren't involved in sexual assaults and rapes of the children, but that they helped cover that up because they were involved in the theft."
Collins said he and the alleged victims are working closely with the Cameron District Attorney’s Office on a criminal investigation.
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