BROWNSVILLE
Valley Man Accused of Abusing Immigrant Stepdaughter

Oct 10, 2006 08:56 PM EDT

A judge denied bond Monday to a man accused of bringing his 14-year-old stepdaughter across the Texas-Mexico border illegally to get an education, but instead held her captive and sexually abused her.

The girl, who suffered "substantial bodily injury" during her approximate two months in captivity, has been returned to her mother in Matamoros, police said.

The girl's mother approached a U.S. Customs officer on Oct. 2 on an international bridge near her home in Matamoros because she was worried that the girl's stepfather wasn't allowing any family to visit her.

The girl was found the next day in a locked trailer in Brownsville. Police issued a warrant for the stepfather, Juan Miguel Medrano, and a tip led them to a relative's trailer home late Saturday where he was found hiding in a closet.

Magistrate Phil Bellamy denied bond for Medrano, a U.S. citizen, on Monday.

The girl, who is not being identified because she is a juvenile victim of sexual abuse, told detectives she had moved in with Medrano about six months ago but had been kept in the trailer, sometimes with her ankle chained, for about the last two months, arrest affidavits show.

Medrano is charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child, unlawful restraint and endangerment, and child abandonment.

Aggravated sexual assault of a child, the most serious charge, is punishable by five to 99 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.