Thread: No bail for men accused of rape in Haverhill

Defense lawyer: Alleged victim's story questionable

By Mike LaBella Aug 24, 2016



HAVERHILL — Two men charged with the assault and rape of a woman at Riverside Park will remain behind bars without bail.

At a hearing Tuesday in Haverhill District Court, Assistant District Attorney John DePaulo read a police report on events that allegedly happened on the night of Aug. 12 when a woman told police she was punched in the face and then raped.

After hearing the report, Judge Patricia Dowling found Juan Carlos Cela-Tacuri, 19, and Manuel Segundo Agualema Guasco, 41, both of 50 White St., to be a danger to the community and ordered them held.

The judge's decision came at a dangerousness hearing designed to determine whether bail would be set for the men.

Dowling ordered both held without bail pending a Sept. 21 probable cause hearing to be held in Haverhill District Court via video conference from Middleton jail.

Tuesday's hearing was postponed from Monday after questions arose about the men's immigration status.

Judge Stephen Abany postponed Monday's hearing after he learned the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported Agualema Guasco in 2013 and had placed detainers on both men after their arrests.

No mention of their immigration status was made at Tuesday's hearing, but Shawn Neudauer, New England spokesman for ICE, said last week a detainer had been placed on Agualema Guasco and if he is released by local authorities, ICE will try to deport him.

An ICE detainer is a written request that a local jail or other law enforcement agency detain an individual for an additional 48 hours after his or her release date. This gives ICE agents extra time to decide whether to take the individual into federal custody for deportation.

Both men are believed to be natives of Equador.

The two men were arrested on the night of Aug. 12 near Riverside Park, where a woman ran up to a police car patrolling the area and said two men had raped her in the woods behind Trinity Stadium.

Agualema Guasco's defense lawyer, Glenn Herlihy, asked the judge on Tuesday not to find his client a danger to the community, saying he has an unblemished court record and although the charges against him are serious, the incident was an "isolated" one.

Herlihy said Agualema Guasco has lived in Haverhill for nine years, that he supports seven children and operates a roofing company, which he said are reasons to release Agualema Guasco on bail. Herlihy also noted that Agualema Guasco was under the influence of alcohol on the night of the alleged rape.

Cela-Tacuri's defense lawyer, Timothy Connors, also asked that his client be released on bail, saying he has lived in Haverhill for the past two years and that his job with Agualema Guasco's roofing company helps support his mother and two siblings.

Connors pointed out that during Monday's hearing, three rows of seats were filled by Cela-Tacuri's friends and family members.

Connors told the judge that no defensive marks were found on either Agualema Guasco or Cela-Tacuri and that Cela-Tacuri has never been in trouble with the law before. Connors questioned the victim's credibility.

"The victim's story of how she got in the car is highly suspect," Connors said. "That she just decided to get into a car is unfathomable. She told one officer she was dragged into the car against her will, yet with another officer she gives a completely different story."

According to the police report, a police cruiser was passing through Riverside Park late on the night of Aug. 12 when a woman came running out of the woods with her shirt partially torn. She screamed “help me” and told police she met two men at the Richdale convenience store on White Street who drove her to the park in a gray car, dragged her into the woods, punched her in the face and tried to rape her, according to the police report.

When back-up officers arrived at Riverside Park, Cela-Tacuri and Agualema Guasco ran from the area, police said. Officers caught them a short time later near the Building 19 property in RiversEdge Plaza next to the park.

At the police station following their arrests, Cela-Tacuri denied having sex with the woman and told police he did not know her. He told police the woman was already with Aqualema Guasco when Cela-Tacuri arrived at the Richdale store and that Aqualema Guasco told him to drive to the park.

Cela-Tacuri said that once they were at the park, Aqualema Guasco went into the woods with the woman and that he, Cela-Tacuri, waited by the car before walking into the woods himself, according to the report. Cela-Tacuri told police he then saw Aqualema Guasco punch the woman in the face and that he asked Aqualema Guasco to leave.

When Agualema Guasco was interviewed, he said he was walking with his 7-year-old son to the Richdale store to meet Cela-Tacuri earlier Friday evening, and that his son went home with his wife before he, Cela and the woman drove to Riverside Park.

Agualema Guasco told police that Cela-Tacuri drove to the park and that he stayed in the car while Cela-Tacuri had sex with the woman. Aqualema Guasco said the woman was charging the men for sex, according to the police report.

After initially telling police he didn’t have sex with the woman, Agualema Guasco later changed his story and said he did indeed have sex with her after Cela-Tacuri did, police said.

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Disgusting. But at least NO BAIL which is a good thing. Illegal aliens should not be given bail under any circumstance. They should be ushered straight into a Deportation Hearing after 24 hours, even a Night Court, no papers, no stay, and out you go within 24 hours. Period. Deportation Courts should be run like Magistrate Courts and Open 24 hours a day. If there's some legitimate question about citizenship, then you have a stay for another 24 hours to verify birth certificate information or naturalization papers.

Defendants believed to be in U.S. illegally from Ecuador

By Peter Francis 17 hrs ago

HAVERHILL — A rape case involving two men believed to be in the U.S. illegally has been continued until next month.

Juan Carlos Cela-Tacuri, 19, and Manuel Segundo Agualema Guasco, 41, both of 50 White St., were in Haverhill District Court on Wednesday for a probable cause hearing stemming from their Aug. 12 arrests for the aggravated rape of a woman in Riverside Park that night.

The hearing was continued until Oct. 26.

Cela-Tacuri and Agualema Guasco were in court Wednesday after initially being scheduled to appear via video conference before Judge Stephen Abany.

Both Cela-Tacuri and Agualema Guasco are believed to be from Ecuador originally and have been encountered by U.S. Border Patrol agents on multiple occasions, with Agualema Guasco deported in 2013.

According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Border Patrol agents "encountered" Cela-Tacuri in Laredo, Texas in February 2015 and issued him a notice to appear in an immigration court in May of that year. In April, agents encountered Agualema Guasco, but did not detain him, either.

ICE has placed detainers — or “immigration holds” — on both men.

A detainer is a written request that a local jail or other law enforcement agency detain an individual for an additional 48 hours after his or her release date, which gives ICE agents extra time to decide whether to take the individual into federal custody for deportation.

But U.S. Border Patrol and ICE have refused to publicly explain what happened after border agents encountered the two men in 2015 and earlier this year.

The case has attracted the attention of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, whose Chairman, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, cited it in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson demanding more information on the two men.

The reticence of the two agencies has also drawn the ire of Congressman Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican who serves as chairman of the House Immigration and Border Security subcommittee, who said in a statement the rape case is "another tragic consequence of our reckless immigration system."

"Both the current state of the law and the Obama administration's failure to enforce the law have allowed for these horrific events to occur," said Gowdy.

According to the police report, late on the night of Aug. 12, a Haverhill police cruiser was passing through Riverside Park when a woman came running out of the woods with her shirt partially torn screaming “help me.”

The woman told police she met two men at the Richdale convenience store on White Street who drove her to the park in a gray car, dragged her into the woods, punched her in the face and tried to rape her, according to the report.

After being apprehended by police, the two men, identified at the time Juan Cela and Manuel Agualema Guasco, were interviewed at the Haverhill Police Station, where Cela-Tacuri denied having sex with the woman and said he didn't know her.

Agualema Guasco told police the woman was charging them for sex and that Cela-Tacuri had sex with her. After initially saying he didn't have sex with her, Agualema Guasco later admitted to having sex with her.

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