 When Cardenas learned of his wife's predicament, he recommended that she retain Charles Garry, a criminal attorney who had gained a reputation in Soledad State Penitentiary as the ardent defender of George Jackson, Huey P. Newton, and Bobby Seale.At the same time, news of the case reached the San Francisco Bay Area, where the women's rights and Chicano movements were at their apex.García began speaking to women's groups in the area, and the Inez Garcia Defense Committee raised money for the defense and publicized the case, hoping to put gender inequalities in the criminal justice system, rather than Garcia herself, on trial.