Ex-MLB star Encarnacion detained in Dominican Republic for allegedly sexually assaulting daughter
29 Aug, 2021 11:35
An ex-Major League baseball star and two-time World Series champion is currently in custody in his homeland the Dominican Republic for allegedly sexually assaulting his daughter in May, according to reports.
Former outfielder Juan Encarnacion is being held without bail due to the nature of the crime and local laws, according to ESPN.
He stands accused of entering his daughter's bedroom while she slept and then sexually assaulting her, according to the girl's mother, who informed the authorities of the alleged act.
Retiring in 2007, the 45-year-old enjoyed a decade at the top level and won championships with both the St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins.
Also starring for the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds across his career, Encarnacion is being held in the capital Santo Domingo's Palace of Justice but was expected to be brought before a judge yesterday.
If convicted, he faces up to 15 years behind bars.
As relayed by a report in Dominican newspaper Diario Libre, head of the prosecution Rosalba Ramos explained that the authorities on the Caribbean isle requested 12 months' preventive detention against Encarnacion.
"These are difficult cases that affect a whole family, but the prosecution has a firm position on cases of abuse against minors," said Ramos.
12 months may be a 'firm position' but it's a pretty pathetic one. The child will still be a child in 12 months.
Josh Duggar's attorneys seek dismissal of charges of
child sexual abuse material
Duggar's attorneys argue that federal investigators failed to preserve
potentially exculpatory evidence that could assist his defense.
Aug. 24, 2021, 3:10 PM PDT
By Antonio Planas and Diana Dasrath
Attorneys for former reality TV star Josh Duggar are seeking to have child sex abuse material charges against him dismissed because investigators failed to preserve evidence that they say could help his defense, court records show.
Duggar, 33, whose family was featured on the TLC reality show "19 Kids and Counting" from 2008 to 2015, was arrested and federally charged in late April with receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material in Arkansas. Some of the material he is alleged to have possessed depicted the sexual abuse of children younger than 12, federal officials have said.
Duggar has pleaded not guilty.
Duggar's attorneys claim in court filings seen by NBC News that investigators failed to preserve potentially "exculpatory evidence" and that the two acting secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security at the time of the investigation weren't properly appointed.
Duggar's attorneys say the charges stem from allegations of conduct involving a desktop computer from a business Duggar once owned and operated. The business was a car lot in Springdale, Arkansas, according to the court records, which were filed Friday in U.S. District Court for western Arkansas.
In November 2019, investigators with Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigations division, commonly known as HSI, secured a federal search warrant for the lot, court records said. Authorities searched the cellphones of three witnesses, one of whom was described as a "person of interest," court records said. Investigators didn't find evidence of child pornography on the three phones, the filings said.
"The problem is that HSI may have not identified evidence of child pornography during the field examination of these devices — but failed to preserve other potentially exculpatory evidence," the filing said. "What happened here is as clear as it is troubling, the Government concluded the three devices they searched did not further its case against Duggar and therefore deprived Duggar of the opportunity to access this potentially exculpatory evidence."
Representatives of the Justice Department couldn't be immediately reached for comment Tuesday.
Duggar's attorneys also argue that, while their client was under investigation, Kevin McAleenan and Chad Wolf were incorrectly installed as acting secretary of homeland security after Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned. The unlawful appointments merit dismissal, the attorneys said, according to records.
In May, Duggar was granted release from federal custody while awaiting trial.
The conditions of Duggan's release included electronic monitoring, a ban on speaking to his children without the supervision of his wife and a ban on using electronic devices. He must also live in a residence that doesn't have any children.
Duggar has been confined to the home of family friends who agreed to be his custodians during his release.
If he is convicted, Duggar could face a fine of $250,000 and a prison sentence of up to 20 years on each count.
The judge who oversaw terms of Duggar's release also referred to past allegations that Duggar molested his younger siblings when he was a teenager, which originally appeared in a 2015 In Touch magazine report. Duggar released a statement at the time saying he "acted inexcusably" and was "extremely sorry."
The Duggar family appeared to admit to the allegations in an interview with Fox News in 2015. His father, Jim Bob Duggar, said that his son touched the girls over and under their clothing as they slept and that he was "just curious about girls."
An Arkansas police report indicated that Duggar was investigated in 2006, when he was 18. He was never arrested or charged with any crime in connection with those allegations.
Man testifies against R. Kelly in sex-trafficking trial
Witness in R&B star's trial alleges he was abused as a high school student
The Associated Press ·
Posted: Aug 30, 2021 3:02 PM ET
In this courtroom sketch, a man testifies during R. Kelly's sex abuse trial on Aug. 30, 2021, saying that the singer exploited him when he was a high school student. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters)
Warning: This story contains sensitive details related to sexual abuse.
After several days of testimony from women claiming they were groomed and sexually abused by R. Kelly, a man took the witness stand at Kelly's sex-trafficking trial in New York City on Monday to say the R&B star exploited him in the same way when he was a high school student.
The witness, taking the stand in federal court in Brooklyn without using his real name, told a jury how Kelly lured him to his Chicago-area home in 2007 with false offers of helping him with his fledgling music career.
Kelly asked the alleged victim, then 17, "what I was willing to do for music," the witness said. He replied, "I'll carry your bags.… Anything you need, I'll be willing to do."
"That's not it. That's not it," he said Kelly responded, before asking him if he ever fantasized about having sex with men. He described how Kelly then "crawled down on his knees and proceeded to give me oral sex," even though, "I wasn't into it."
Afterward, "he told me to keep between him and me," the witness said.
In a later episode, Kelly "snapped his fingers three times" to summon a naked girl from where she was hiding under a boxing ring to give Kelly and the witness oral sex, the man told the jury.
The witness said he kept seeing Kelly after that because "I really wanted to make it in the music industry."
The witness was testifying as part of a co-operation agreement, stemming from his guilty plea in a separate case. In that case he was charged for taking part in a botched scheme to bribe a woman to not testify against Kelly. No charges were brought against Kelly related to the scheme.
Kelly denies allegations
Kelly, 54, is charged with racketeering, running a criminal enterprise and violating an anti-human-trafficking law called the Mann Act.
The singer has repeatedly denied accusations that he preyed on victims during a 30-year career highlighted by his 1996 mega-hit I Believe I Can Fly. His lawyers have portrayed his accusers as groupies who are lying about their relationships with him.
Earlier Monday, a woman testified that Kelly sexually assaulted her at age 17 following a performance in Miami in 1994. The witness, also testifying without using her real name, claimed that Kelly's cronies took her and a friend to his dressing room after the show before he pulled down her shorts and forced her to have unprotected sex.
"I was in complete shock," she said. "I didn't know what to say at all. I basically went blank."
Afterward, she and her friend "unlocked the door and ran out of there," she said.
On cross-examination, defence lawyer Deveraux Cannick pressed the witness on why, after someone allegedly "raped you," she waited more than two decades to contact law enforcement.
"Because I didn't want to feel more shame and trauma," she said.
Man City’s Mendy ‘unhappy’ after being taken to jail over rape charges
– because he ‘thought he’d be on VIP wing for celebrities’
1 Sep, 2021 09:17
Benjamin Mendy is at HMP Altcourse © Carl Recine / Action Images via Reuters | © Sue Adair via Wikimedia Commons / creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
Premier League footballer Benjamin Mendy was reportedly shocked to discover that he would not be returning to his mansion or housed on a VIP wing in jail following his rape charges.
Manchester City defender Mendy is said to have been told that he would be taken to the VP wing of a tough prison in Liverpool – denoting 'vulnerable prisoners' who need to be isolated from the main prison population, such as sex offenders – after appearing in court on four counts of rape and one of sexual assault on Friday.
The 27-year-old did not realize that he had been denied bail to return to his $6.9 million home and misunderstood officers as saying that he would be kept in a VIP wing, according to The Sun.
"When Mendy arrived, staff explained he was going to be kept on the VP wing for his own safety," the outlet has quoted a source as saying.
“But perhaps because he is French and his English isn’t great, he misunderstood what they had said and thought he was being taken to a VIP wing for celebrities. He wasn’t happy and it was a very sobering experience for him.”
Mendy will be locked up at the 1,324-capacity jail until the former France international appears before judges again at nearby Chester Crown Court on September 10.
The World Cup winner allegedly attacked three women, including one under the age of 18, at his home in the village of Prestbury.
His location, HMP Altcourse, is a men's prison opened in 1997 as the first privately-financed jail in the UK.
Also housing young offenders, it is set in the Fazakerley area of Merseyside and takes offenders from a wide local area.
The facility is a stark contrast to Prestbury, which is listed on a real estate website as boasting an average property price approaching $2 million.
The village was dubbed 'footballers' alley' by one UK newspaper in 2009, with Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney and former City striker Carlos Tevez said to have owned plush homes locally at the time.
One villager told the outlet that revered former United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and ex-England boss Sven Goran Eriksson had enjoyed visiting a local restaurant.
Mendy, who joined City from Monaco for around $71.5 million in 2017, will reportedly strenuously deny the charges leveled against him.
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