Woman claims she was sexually harassed in church by elected city leader

San Antonio – Leon Valley City Council President Benny Martinez was successfully re-elected after being ousted by previous City Council members during a special hearing following several complaints against him.

Eva Cervantes says she had no idea who Martinez was when she met him at the San Antonio-area church they both attend and volunteer at. Cervantes claims that on July 30, 2023, while she was volunteering as a camerawoman, Martinez was sent to check on a problem with her camera.

During this interaction, Cervantes said, Martinez stood in a small room behind her and rubbed his crotch against her butt.

“I just feel that someone is behind me and I can feel his penis, his genitals. Of course, if he has his pants on. And I feel it, but I can’t move because there’s a wall here and it’s a small square,” she explained.

Cervantes says she was paralyzed with panic and shock and didn’t want to draw attention to herself because the priest was speaking. “The camera was set to red, which means I’m live and I can’t move. And I was just there and I felt him behind me,” she explained.

Cervantes and her husband took their complaint to church leadership. She says she was told to keep the incident quiet until an internal investigation was completed. She provided KSAT with an August 2023 email from church leadership members that outlined the steps being taken to keep her and Martinez on separate volunteer schedules and required him to “allow all people appropriate personal space” while at the church.

KSAT has chosen not to name the church at this time because no legal action has been taken against the church in connection with Cervantes’ claim. However, the church has issued a one-page statement saying, “We immediately took prudent steps to erect physical boundaries around our cameras.”

According to the church’s statement, there was an internal investigation. “The circumstances of the alleged incident occurred in a very public setting with hundreds of people in attendance, and none of those we spoke with and who specifically observed the interaction saw anything inappropriate other than an invasion of privacy,” the statement said.

In February 2024, Cervantes filed a complaint with the San Antonio Police Department. Her account of the incident is similar to what Catherine Rodriguez described in a 2018 interview with KSAT. Rodriguez was a city councilwoman at the time and one of several people who filed complaints against the city for sexual harassment and workplace harassment.

Rodriguez lost her seat and said she was publicly pilloried for speaking her mind. “Sometimes I think maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. But I couldn’t stay quiet because it was going to happen. It was going to happen to someone else,” she explained.

In 2018, Martinez was the subject of a special City Council hearing after half a dozen Leon Valley city workers filed complaints against him, alleging he created a hostile work environment and Rodriguez accused him of sexual harassment.

In 2019, the City Council voted 2-1 to remove Martinez from office due to charter violations, but that hearing did not address Rodriguez’s sexual misconduct, so her allegations were neither proven nor disproven. The council said the then-councilwoman waited too long to file her complaint.

Cervantes says she didn’t search online until she heard someone at church mention Martinez’s connection to Leon Valley and found Rodriguez’s account of what happened to her. That was the moment she was encouraged to speak publicly about her claims. “Then I thought, then I’m not crazy if this happened to me, and people tried to say no, no, no,” she said.

Cervantes says she was fired from her volunteer position of seven years without prior complaint. Comments from other church volunteers led her to believe it was retaliation for her speaking out against Martinez.

The church confirmed that Martinez is no longer a volunteer but continues to attend church. And its statement said, “It would be inappropriate for us to make further comments about our church members.”

KSAT contacted Martinez by email and left a message with city staff requesting a call back. We reached him by phone, and he denied any wrongdoing. “You know full well that the things Catherine accused me of were all lies,” he said. “This Eva thing is all lies, it happened a year ago and nothing has happened,” he said by phone. But he declined to sit down with KSAT for a formal interview.

Both women said they felt terrible and alone when they confided in those around them, but wanted to make it public.

Regarding Cervantes’ July 2023 complaint to the church, an email from SAPD states, “This case is still open and under investigation. The case is currently being investigated as an assault charge as this is the most appropriate offense based on the victim’s description.”

The church’s statement indicates that it has not been contacted by local authorities but will cooperate openly if it is. Martinez has never been criminally charged in connection with the women’s allegations.