MEXICO CITY –  Relatives and supporters of a jailed vigilante leader who holds dual U.S. and Mexican citizenship say she and her community police force never demanded bail for or mistreated the prisoners in their care.

Nestora Salgado, a resident of the Seattle suburb of Renton, was arrested in August 2013 after people detained by her community police force in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero said they had been kidnapped. A federal judge in 2014 cleared Salgado of those charges, but related state charges have kept her locked up.

Salgado’s fellow commanders said Tuesday during a news conference in Mexico City that they never demanded bail money, which her accusers called ransom. They said many of those the force detained were youths held at the request of their parents for “re-education.”