WEST PALM BEACH — Nearly two years after her arrest made international headlines, a mother accused of livestreaming the rape of her two young sons stood before cameras to reclaim her name.

Walquiria Cassini, once threatened with life in prison, spent 18 months fighting a slew of capital sex abuse charges that prosecutors ultimately dropped two weeks before trial. She described losing her career, her reputation and her children to “a calculated ploy” by her ex-partner to win custody of their children.

“I went from being a mom to nothing,” Cassini said on Oct. 31, speaking publicly about the case for the first time. “I want to see change. I want to see justice. I hope that there is never another woman or man out there that has to go through what we went through.”

Walquiria Cassini appears at a press conference on Oct. 31, 2025.

Cassini, 40, reported her ex for parental kidnapping after he failed to return their sons from a Thanksgiving visit in 2023. The man, in turn, called 911 to report the gruesome allegations his children purportedly made during that visit.

When questioned by detectives, the 7- and 14-year-old boys described yearslong sexual abuse committed in secret at their home in suburban Boca Raton, broadcast to a paying audience online. A Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy recorded the allegations in an arrest report so graphic that it shocked the longtime judge who reviewed it.

But soon, those same allegations that spurred prosecutors to seek charges punishable by death began to crumble under scrutiny.

Of the more than 56 computers, phones, tablets, USBs and gaming consoles FBI agents seized from Cassini’s home, none contained any evidence of child pornography. Items that were genetically tested came back negative for the boys’ DNA. What detectives thought was a sex toy was actually a rubber smoking pipe.

Defense attorney Mac Kenzie Sacks appears beside her client, Walquiria Cassini, during a press conference on Oct. 31, 2025.

Online payments agents speculated were related to child pornography were later linked to Cassini’s hair appointments and dinners with friends. An IP address associated with dozens of deleted videos from a pornographic website, initially linked to the Cassini household, was ultimately associated with a man living in Zephyrhills.

Cassini’s defense attorney, Mac Kenzie Sacks, said during the Oct. 31 conference that Cassini’s arrest report was “authored to generate headlines — not reflect facts,“ and that the rush to arrest her before the forensic test results came back created an avalanche of false assumptions.

Sack’s co-counsel, Matthew Goldberger, called the case a study in confirmation bias. He theorized that the sensational allegations and public attention made it difficult for detectives, once confronted with conflicting evidence, to acknowledge they had made a mistake.

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“I think that, in its simplest form, they jumped the gun,” Goldberger said. “I think there was a premature arrest. I think they wrote this probable-cause affidavit before they had an opportunity to even review any of the devices and see if anything they said was going to hold water.”

The only thing the evidence did show, the attorneys continued, was that Cassini’s ex manipulated the boys into believing lies about their mother.

According to Sacks and Goldberger, the man worked to alienate his sons from their mother, convincing them that Cassini — who, prior to her arrest, made a six-figure salary selling medical equipment — was a “prostitute” and a “whore.” He fed the eldest boy YouTube videos that described women as “skanks” and “scum of the earth” and made the case that both would be better off living with him in Ocala, free from the rules, chores and homework awaiting them in Boca Raton.

Prosecutors felt they ‘no longer had a good faith basis to proceed’

“He won the battle, but we won the war, and this is going to continue,” Cassini said. “Lies can only go so far. The truth in the end will prevail.”

She thanked her legal team, as well as the State Attorney’s Office for dropping the charges against her. She said she hopes to rebuild her life after what she called “the toughest thing I’ve ever gone through.”

“I had made a very good name for myself. I was climbing the corporate ladder. I had worked so hard, and, as a teen mom, I was very proud of myself,” she said. “Then everything was taken away from me.”

Defense attorney Matthew Goldberger appears during a press conference on Oct. 31, 2025.

Cassini’s eldest son, 21-year-old Matthew Cassini, and her boyfriend, Ryan Londono — both of whom were charged as accomplices until the case unraveled — stood on either side of her, alternately wiping their eyes and squeezing her shoulder.

Her younger sons, now 9 and 16, remain in Ocala with their father under a standing family court order issued after Cassini’s arrest. Her attorneys said they plan to seek custody and reunification.

Asked whether they believe either detectives or Cassini’s ex could face civil or criminal consequences, the attorneys declined to comment. Their focus, they said, is now on restoring Cassini’s life and addressing the systemic failures that allowed the case to proceed.

“The legal system can be, and too often is, weaponized by one parent against another,” Goldberger said. “Walquiria Cassini, Ryan Londono and Matthew Cassini almost lost everything. They lost their jobs, they lost these boys and they nearly lost their freedom.”

A spokesperson for the State Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for additional information about its decision to drop the case. In a one-page filing to the judge, Assistant State Attorney Karen Black said the law-enforcement agencies involved in the case, including the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI, were in agreement with the decision.

“The state has considered law enforcement’s exhaustive review of the digital forensic evidence,” she wrote. “All are in agreement that the state no longer has a good faith basis to proceed.”

Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Teri Barbera said the case’s lead detective, who has been with the office since 2016, is currently the subject of an internal affairs investigation pertaining to her handling of the investigation. She remains on paid administrative leave.

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Boca mom cleared of livestreaming sons’ rape speaks for first time