elijah galvan Archives - Crews vs Richard Galvan and Sonia Galvan

The Harvey Weinstein/Richard Galvan Connection

Watched the Harvey Weinstein documentary called “Untouchable” last night. I highly suggest it. It was and eye opening documentary for me. All of the assaults were preventable, if more people would have stood up and spoke out against it.

Standing idly by or quietly (ESPECIALLY after the court has already deemed an assault criminal, and a matter of public concern), is enabling, and empowering criminals like Richard Galvan and Harvey Weinstein to continue to commit assaults against other innocent victims. Richard Galvan had enough warning signs (publicly documented) to keep him away from ANY type of leadership over young women.

Do you know why Richard Galvan (and many sex predators like Weinstein) are able to sexually assault these girls? Because churches, schools, organizations, and people ignored the warning signs.

Calvary Christian School in Harlingen, Texas knew about Richard Galvans prostitution arrest by doing a background check and still allowed him to coach the girls basketball team.

Bill and Anne Moore (pastors of Livingway Family Church in Brownsville/Harlingen) refused to ever hear the truth about Richards assault, and instead threatened to sue us for speaking out and blocked us on social media.

The RGV Fellowship of Christian Athletes (in which Galvan was on the board, as well as a minister) ignored our warnings, and blocked us on social media.

Legends Junior Tour has ignored every attempt made to warn them about Richard Galvans actions, in an attempt to protect young female golfers from him by warning their parents.

LTISDSchools has blocked us from multiple school ran accounts for our attempts to notify them of The Galvans criminal behavior. They have ignored it, and done nothing (that we have been told) to prevent Richard from having access to young girls at the school, nor have they made any attempts to warn parents who’s daughters may be in close proximity to the Galvans.

Then we have friends and acquaintances of the Galvans. Some have told us “be careful he’s a shark”, some have told us “I always knew something was off with him”, most have said they never liked Richard or Sonia. Some have decided to stay manipulated by the Galvans and allow their daughters to be around them… I assume out of fear. No matter why, it’s undeniably asinine as a parent to allow Richard anywhere close to a young women.

This behavior only continues when people do and say nothing. Richard Galvan (like Weinstein) preyed on weakness and used their perceived power to sexually abuse women. The truth is, the characteristics of a predator are all very similar. Harvey Weinstein used his power to coerce girls to have sex with them and he would help their career, while Richard said it would heal Hannah spiritually. The warning signs are the same. We must speak out against it. Click video below to see some clips that stood out.

Taken from “Untouchable” The documentary about Harvey Weinstein.

Not a Unique Story…. Sadly

Alleged abusers often allege the word “consensual” when referring to “what happened.”

Our story is not unique, sadly.

When victims of abuse begin to finally understand what happened to them, and begin to peel back the many layers of the grooming, manipulation, and perversion masterfully used by a sexual predator, many decide to speak out. The timeline in which this happens varies from person to person. Some are filled with so much shame they are too afraid to ever speak out, while others realize if they don’t the same cycles of abuse could happen to other innocent women.

Regardless of why, how, when, or if a victim ever decides to speak, they ARE victims none the less.

The word “consensual” has been used by so many predators in sexual assault/clergy abuse cases we have read about. It was used in our case by Richard and Sonia Galvan, who then decided in their depositions (years after they filed their lawsuit) to take it a step further by blaming the victim for the assault happening. All of this after they filed a frivolous and malicious lawsuit against us for defamation (by stating it was all false). Only after they were so cornered from the lies that they told did they change their story, which they described the assault as a “consensual personal relationship”.

The truth is simple. Richard Galvan is a rapist, a sexual deviant, a groomer, a manipulator, a thief, a liar, and a man who used the Gospel and Christianity to gain access to young women to take their innocence. We have proof of this. His wife Sonia Galvan is fully aware of his actions, and has decided to go down with the ship…. and going down it is.

No matter how much they would love to become the victims in this story, this is what almost every predator who gets caught does. Their narcissistic ego-filled pride comes before their own innocent family members and friends. In fact predators will often use their own children as a shield against the truth to gain sympathy from others after they’ve been exposed for who they are. This is what The Galvan’s have done, and have continued to do.

Richard and Sonia- you are not the victims. You never will be. Truth will win.

Timeline of Events Richard Galvan and Sonia Galvan

In 2007 and prior to her senior year of high school in Harlingen, TX, Hannah Crews (then Linn) suffered a break up with her high school sweet heart. Her youth pastor Richard Galvan hired her at his office, and began to counsel her. Richard told Hannah that the reason she was heartbroken was because of the physical attachment she had developed with her ex-boyfriend and “that the physical aspect of it caused her to be spiritually connected to her ex-boyfriend’s soul.” Richard explained to Hannah that the way to heal from her break up was through intimacy.

According to Hannah:

Richard would then bait me with his questions, asking, ‘so what do you think you need to do to move on from this pain?’ Richard made me think I needed to respond with ‘having sex,’ since he had just explained that sex brought healing. He then shook his head yes and told me that he would ‘help me out with this.’ Richard again told me that completing this physical act of sex would heal me spiritually, since the two (physical intimacy and spirituality) were tied together. He also convinced me that since I trusted him as my mentor, it was safest to go about it this way (having sex with him instead of someone else).
Nothing happened that day physically between us. It still took many more conversations to convince me that having sex with him (Richard) would help me heal. I even asked him during a later conversation, “But that means you would be taking my virginity,” of which he got angry with me, stepped close to my face, and said sternly, “No, I am not taking your virginity, you are giving it to me, because you are entrusting me to help you heal.” Since I had deep love and admiration for his wife Sonia, I would also ask him how it was okay to do this since he was married. He convinced me, over and over, that this act was a strictly physical action for a spiritual healing for me and me alone. But he also told me that she would never know about this, so I didn’t have to worry about this hurting her.
Finally, after weeks and weeks of conversation and manipulation and coercion and convincing in Mr. Galvan’s office, at the beginning of volleyball season before school started in August of 2007, I agreed to meet Richard at the La Quinta hotel in Mercedes, TX. Richard was fearful of being discovered that day, and even thought a car across the street was a hired investigator that was possibly watching us. We went upstairs, I agreed to sexual acts, and lost my virginity that day. Afterwards, I had to go to school and travel with my team to play in the first volleyball tournament of the pre-season. I was still 17 years old. And that was the first and last time I agreed to do anything physical with Richard Galvan for the rest of my life.
Hannah’s mother found out and confronted Richard. Richard then went to Hannah’s parents house and admitted what had happened to Hannah’s mother.

In October 2018, Hannah told her husband Blaine the details of the events that occurred. After learning of Richard Galvan’s identity, Blaine became very upset and obtained Sonia Galvan’s cell phone number and texted her. Richard called him back almost immediately. Blaine was concerned that Richard may “still be associating himself with youth and placing himself in a position to take advantage of other young women under his authority.” According to Blaine, during his conversation with Richard, Richard acknowledged that the events Blaine recounted about Richard’s sexual relationship with Hannah were true. Blaine told Richard and Sonia Galvan that he was concerned about Richard being around young women and that people needed the information about his interactions with Hannah to determine whether Richard should be around their daughters.

Blaine then called Calvary Christian School (where Richard and Sonia Galvan’s children attended, and Richard Galvan had coached the girls basketball team) and The Living-Way Family Church in Brownsville, TX (where the Galvan’s attended church). Blaine attempted numerous times to reach Pastors Bill Moore and Anne Moore and inform them of Richard’s past sexual misconduct with teenagers, especially since Richard and Sonia’s daughter was in the youth group there. Bill Moore and Anne Moore refused to speak about the matter to the Crews’s or the Crews’s attorney, and instead allowed their executive assistant Melissa Barerra-Sosa to sign a sworn affidavit attempting to assist the Galvan’s by stating “Blaine went from cordial to upset” after she told him the pastors wouldn’t speak to him. Since Richard was on the board for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in South Texas, he also reached out to them as well as the National FCA.

In or around November 2018, Richard and Sonia Galvan (The Galvan’s) filed a lawsuit against the Crews’s for Defamation Per Se, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, Public Disclosure of Private Facts, and Civil Assault. The Crews’s filed a Motion to Dismiss via the Texas Anti-Slapp Statute on the grounds of freedom of speech in regards to a matters of public concern in which the trial court denied. They immediately appealed the decision and took it before the 13th Court of Appeals in Texas in which the Memorandum Opinion written by Chief Justice Dori Contreras reversed the judgement of the trial court, dismissing the Defamation per se cause of action. The Galvan’s have since nonsuited all of their remaining causes of action against the Crews’s.

On June 9th, 2020 the Crews’s were awarded mandatory fees and sanctions. Click here for more information. The Crews’s have filed a counter-suit for Malicious Prosecution and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress. That claim is still pending jury trial set for February 2022.

A photo of Richard Galvan preaching to high school aged children during an FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) event. Though he and Sonia Galvan claim in their depositions neither of them held any kind of leadership role over young people.

Showing Richard Galvan coaching young women's basketball team. — One of the biggest concerns for Blaine Crews was that Richard Galvan was associating himself with young girls in a position of authority- like this photo above which shows him coaching a girls basketball team. Blaine (a father of a daughter himself), could not allow the previous admitted behavior of Richard Galvan to go unrecognized. It is the sole reason he contacted the schools, churches, and FCA organizations. The parents of girls just like the ones above have the right to know about Richard Galvan and Sonia Galvan. The girls faces have been blacked out to protect their identity.

Taken from The Valley Morning Star showing Richard Galvan involved with the HCISD (Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District). The opinion from the 13th Court of Appeals in Texas believes the public has the right to know about Richard Galvan’s sexual misconduct, as it pertains to a matter of public concern.

Richard Galvan’s involvement with HCISD.