Thread: Over 30 Criminal Charges and Still Free...Why?

Over 30 Criminal Charges and Still Free...Why?

Updated: Fri 6:32 PM, Mar 13, 2015
By: Ashley Bishop - Email

A Minnesota man is arrested for rape and assault, but it's not the first time he's been in trouble with the law.

Ayub Abukar is accused of raping and assaulting a woman on Tuesday night who is 5-months pregnant. She says he used a flashlight to beat her in her eye, forehead, and feet. Abukar was just released from jail for aggravated assault last week.

From the time we first reported this story, many of you wanted to know how this person wasn't already behind bars. Valley News Live investigated and found out how someone with dozens of previous criminal charges was still allowed to walk the streets.

Ayub Abukar is very familiar to the legal system. He has had 12 offenses in Minnesota and 37 in Cass County. Many viewers have commented saying;

"It's time to get this pervert off the street, put him behind bars so he can't rape and assault anyone else."

And someone else says,

"How about some serious prison time without parole?"
Abukar has seen 11 different judges in the Cass County Court

System and the same judge for 15 of his offenses. According to the Cass County State's Attorney office, half of the cases were handled by a lower, municipal court.

"All of them would be misdemeanor offense or even some just potential infractions or something of that nature," said Cass County Assistant State's Attorney, Leah Viste.

Abukar's criminal record stretches pretty far, so how can someone with so many charges that tend to be escalating still be allowed to walk the streets?

"When each case comes in we have to review each case for the facts of each case, when we're making a sentencing recommendation sure someone's history will come in but the weight of the evidence weigh pretty heavily in what we can do because ultimately if we go to trial we have to prove it to a jury," said Viste.

One victim's family member reached out to Valley News Live saying that "they feel awful for the woman in the most recent case and believes its not any one person in the Cass County Court System that isn't doing their job, it is the legal system."

Viste says that the most recent crime is violent, but Abukar is innocent until proven guilty and adds she doesn't think the system is perfect but it is the process we use.

"We do our best to feather it out and we try to get the just result, unfortunately people do what people do and Mr. Abukar does what he does. I don't necessary think that him getting out on the aggravated assault is failing, I think that he has been charged with a new crime and that is tragic. That will unfold itself in the criminal justice system as all cases do," said Viste.

As of Friday, The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department has issued an immigration hold on Abukar; which means they wish to speak with him.

http://www.valleynewslive.com/home/h...296279511.html

Fargo man accused of beating, raping pregnant woman as another man watches

By Emily Welker on Mar 12, 2015 at 12:18 p.m.


Ayub Haji Abukar

FARGO – A 34-year-old here is accused in a rape and beating that broke the nose, cheekbone, foot and possibly the pelvis of a woman five months pregnant, the second local case this week alleging a felony-level attack on a pregnant woman.

Court documents filed Thursday in Cass County District Court say the woman told police she was staying with a friend at an apartment in the 100 block of Second Street South when he and the accused rapist, Ayub Haji Abukar, came home between 10 and 11 Monday night, when Abukar attacked her.

She told police Abukar raped her repeatedly, moving her from the bedroom to the living room as the assaults went on and as the other man encouraged him, court records state.

The woman told police Abukar beat her on her feet, eye and forehead before she escaped and ran naked for help to another person’s apartment, court documents say. Her pelvic injuries could not be X-rayed due to the presence of her 5-months-developed fetus.

Abukar, 34, who has no permanent address, is charged with gross sexual imposition, a Class AA felony, two counts of Class C felony aggravated assault, and simple assault, a Class B misdemeanor. The Class AA charge can carry a lifetime prison term upon conviction.
His bail was set at $50,000.

The second man in the case has not been charged criminally.

Cass County prosecutor Leah Viste said that in general, felony conspiracy or facilitating charges can be applied to someone who encourages someone to commit a violent felony.

That’s “depending on what the other person says or does,” said Viste. “People have First Amendment rights … we don’t know that this case necessarily presents itself to that.”

Abukar pleaded guilty earlier this month to an unrelated matter in which he was accused of boarding a stranger’s party bus and stabbing a guest there.

In that case, Abukar pleaded guilty March 3 in Cass County District Court to Class C felony aggravated assault and was sentenced to a year and a half of supervised probation.

He was released from jail custody on the previous offense one week before the sexual assault incident, jail officials said.

His next court appearance is set for April 9.

Earlier this week, a Moorhead 35-year-old was charged with assaulting his unborn child after prosecutors alleged he beat, kicked and dragged his 8-months pregnant girlfriend while threatening to hit her in the stomach.

Judd David Kunkel was charged Monday in Clay County District Court with felony terroristic threats, gross misdemeanor domestic assault and third-degree misdemeanor assault with fear of bodily harm or death on an unborn child.

http://www.inforum.com/news/crime/36...er-man-watches