Thread: UT: Doubt cast on woman’s claims of abuse

Doubt cast on woman’s claims of abuse

By melinda Rogers

The Salt Lake Tribune

First published 5 hours ago
Updated 9 minutes ago Updated Jan 26, 2011 11:47PM

A defense attorney for a South Salt Lake businessman accused of smuggling a Mexican woman into the U.S. and abusing her shredded the alleged victim’s credibility in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, claiming she is motivated to lie in order to avoid deportation.

On the second day of a three-day trial for Raul Alvarado, 41, defense attorney Bel-Ami de Montreux accused Alvarado’s victim of fabricating rape and abuse allegations against Alvarado in order to secure immigration benefits available to undocumented immigrants who are crime victims.

During a cross examination of the woman’s testimony on Wednesday, Montreux questioned how she was allegedly severely beaten, yet worked at a public market where no one ever asked about her appearance. The victim kept no photographs of her injuries, and there are no hospital records that indicate she ever received treatment, he pointed out.

Following testimony from the victim, the victim’s father and an FBI agent who interviewed Alvarado following his March 8 arrest, Judge Ted Stewart ruled on Wednesday that prosecutors didn’t meet their burden of evidence that Alvarado physically abused his victim.

The jury on Thursday will deliberate whether he encouraged an undocumented person to reside in the U.S. illegally — and will likely be asked to not consider the victim’s testimony about domestic violence — when they decide Alvarado’s fate.

Alvarado’s victim, whom the The Salt Lake Tribune is not naming because she is allegedly a victim of sexual abuse, testified Tuesday that Alvarado romanced her when the two met in Michoacan, Mexico, in 2004 and persuaded her to move to Utah.

She testified she’d been told Alvarado paid a coyote $2,000 to take her in a truck over the border. She said she became pregnant with Alvarado’s child shortly after they met and agreed to go to Utah to start a family with the man. But when she arrived in Salt Lake City, Alvarado told her he’d brought her there to work and "not to be a princess."

She claimed Alvarado forced her to clean, work long hours at a Latino market he owns, and beat her when she tried to rest, which caused her to have miscarriage. She testified that Alvarado raped her as she was recovering from the miscarriage, and raped her on eight to 10 other occasions. She left Alvarado eight months after her arrival, and received help from Holy Cross Ministries, which assists victims of domestic violence. The case proceeded to federal court last year.

He argued that the victim has a history of illegally entering the U.S. on her own, including a stint in 1999 where she got into the country and lived in Oakland, Calif., with a former husband. Her divorce proceedings were taking place in Mexico at the same time the woman was allegedly being beaten by Alvarado in Salt Lake City, Montreux argued.

The victim testified she conducted her divorce through the mail and remained in Utah in 2005, when the alleged abuse occurred. She said she never left Alvarado because he’d threatened to harm her or her family members in Mexico if she reported his alleged assaults on her to police.

Alvarado is charged with one count of felony inducing an undocumented immigrant to enter and reside in the United States, but the victim’s abuse allegations are relevant because prosecutors needed to prove that Alvarado caused her "serious bodily harm" as an element of the broader offense of smuggling her into the country.

Montreux criticized the FBI’s handling of the case, saying the agency’s policy to not record, videotape or provide written statements of confessions given by suspects is unfair. Alvarado admitted to smuggling the woman into the country during an interview following his arrest, according to FBI agent Gregory Knapp, but Montreux said the agent’s testimony isn’t enough.

"It’s your word against his word," Montreux said."Today you walk into court with only your word on what he said, without any proof to back it up."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Parkinson countered by saying Knapp would lose his job if he lied. He argued Alvarado is guilty of smuggling because the man admitted to paying the coyote, which shows he knew that it was illegal to bring the woman into the country.

www.sltrib.com

I'm glad at least the court is throwing out her claims of abuse. Abuse claims against boyfriends and husbands are already far greater then the truth and when comes to illegal and legal immigrants is 100x worse. I know a couple men who were scammed by women they fell in love with overseas when used the men for a green card and shortly after arriving screamed abuse and rape and got away with it and allowed to stay in the US.

She has no proof, not a picture, police report, hospital record, and no friends she's told to testify for her. Sounds like she found an immigration lawyer on the side that told her the best way for her to gain legal status which is true is scream abuse and rape.

I wonder how many of these cases happen each year in the U.S.

I also wonder how many innocent men have been convicted of these kind of crimes when it is all a lie just to get to stay in the U.S.

The women who do this are despicable.

Well its been said for years the US has the highest number of false rape claims in the world. Independant research groups not tied to womens movements and such suggest between 35-70% of rape claims in the US are false. Most have also gone on to also they though we do have a large number of women who don't report their rapes for whatever reasons.

Statistics are all hard to believe and do properly. Many find the subject taboo for honest statistics and reporting as noone wants to be labeled a bad guy saying someone is lieing about a rape be it true or untrue. I used to follow these statistics a number of years ago and it was appalling the number of false rape accusations many which never make the news.

Far as illegal aliens go I'd have to assume probably 75% of the claims in the US are false. Its no more rape then paying a prostitute. The women is consenting and her form of payment is at first being kept illegally and later her form of payment is not being turned in. Its consentual however as in most cases she could leave whenever she wished and be deported and the man would not harm her at all.

Do keep in mind the oldest business in the world, prostitution. Selling ones body for goods or services and most of these cases are no different. Its like saying you were raped because you are a prostitute and your customer desides not to pay anymore. Maybe he even threatened to turn you in. Thats blackmail, not rape. Considering the criminal offense first involved (prostitution or in this case illegal alien) one doesn't use one non heinous crime to cover up another.

Quick statistics.

2005 the US Justice department said their were 191,670 victims of rape and only 16% go reported. That means in the US we have 12 million rapes a year.

It also says aprox 40% of rapes are from "other" offenders far as race not black or white.

The study was by the Justice Department on 2005 titled "Criminal Victimization in the United States".

One would think as Asians make up a tiny amount of the population they surely couldn't of commited 40% of the rapes... so really who's left?

The Raza people have the conscience of a burro