Changes In The Rape Case In Maryland

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Authorities dropped charges Friday against two undocumented teens accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in a bathroom at their school in Maryland, in a case that sparked huge controversy over the immigration status of the suspects.

A Montgomery County judge accepted the request of attorneys for José Montaño, 17, from El Salvador, and Henry Sánchez Milián, 18, born in Guatemala, to drop the charges of rape in the first degree and sexual offense in first degree, and asked that they be released immediately as the case against them is "unsustainable".

"The facts in this case do not support the original charges," prosecutor John McCarthy said at a news conference after the hearing held this morning. In the investigation, the prosecutor explained, "substantial inconsistencies" were found on the part of the witnesses.

The events date back to last March, when the two young men were accused of having cornered their partner in a bathroom to rape her in broad daylight and when classes were in session.

Defense attorneys for both teenagers alleged from the beginning that the sexual act had been in common agreement with the alleged victim. According to The Washington Post, the school's security cameras captured the moment when Montaño and the young woman walked to the bathroom in the hours when the attack was reported to have happened.

Some text messages between those involved and contradictory versions that the victim offered during his testimony gave the coup de grace to the case. The lawyers also managed to deny that their clients were affiliated with Central American gangs and that they had used "signs of the MS-13."

The two young Central Americans are in the United States after crossing the border without the necessary documentation, but after being detained by immigration, they were released to reunite with their relatives in Maryland. Once established there, they registered at the school to take the ninth grade.

Amid the heated debate on immigration, the case was singled out as a negative example by supporters of the restrictive policies adopted by President Donald Trump.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer himself cited it as proof of the need to combat the entry of undocumented immigrants.

"Part of the reason the president has made so much noise about illegal immigration and [his] campaign [to eliminate it] is precisely because of tragedies like this," Spicer said at the time. "Our citizens are the ones who pay when immigration is not done legally and this is just one more example of that."