An answer may be in what has happened to a friend of a friend here in Iowa. He was accused of child molesting. I have no idea whether he did or didn't. This guy was offered 10 years to plead guilty. He claims he was innocent, and went to trial. At trial he was found guilty, and was given life with a chance of parole at 40 years. He went in the klink at age 20, and 23 years later, he is still in the klink.
So think about if you are in that sitch. You can go to court, and get life, or possibly get off and get no time. Or you take the 10 years. Maybe these folks decided not to chance the long time.
I can see one or two taking that deal but not all of them.
Here’s a scenario. They pooled their money and said to her “We’ll give you $30,000 and this pillowcase full of Meth to say it never happened. If you don’t agree, we start killing your family”. It is WV after all.
Since they plead guilty, recanting is going to be messy. The judge can assume the victim is lying now under the guise of “If she says she was lying then, how do we know she isn’t lying now?”.