Posted on 04/30/2019 5:35:55 PM PDT by usafa92
DENVER — A U.S. Air Force cadet accused of brutally raping another cadet last year went on trial Monday in federal district court.
Alvaro Pablo Velarde, an international student from Lima, Peru, faces two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact.
A female cadet said he raped her in her dorm room so violently on Oct. 23, 2018 she was in intense pain and left with a concussion. It is the policy of Denver7 to not identify victims of alleged sexual assault.
Velarde was indicted by a federal grand jury in November 2018.
Prosecutors said Monday Velarde ignored the victim’s pleas to stop as he raped her.
He forced her pants down, forced her onto the bed, sexually assaulted her and hit her head so hard she felt “dazed,” federal prosecutor Emily Treaster told the jury in opening statements.
The victim was crying during the incident, Treaster said.
At the end of the incident, as the victim looked for her clothes, Treaster said Velarde cleared his throat to get her attention and held up her clothes. He then forced the victim to kiss him before he left her dorm room, Treaster claimed.
Defense attorney claims
Defense attorney Mark Scabavea has described the case as a “he said, she said,” case and told the jury on Monday that this case stemmed from the "Me Too" movement.
He said the victim had a serious boyfriend and learned her parents were getting a divorce. He said the victim claimed she was raped after consensually having sex with the defendant and cheating on her “serious” boyfriend.
Velarde’s father does not believe the allegations. Through an interpreter, he told Denver7 he raised his son to have values.
“I never imaged living through these moments because I raised him with values and the right morals,” Dagoberto Velarde said after court. “My kids grew up with both me and my wife teaching them two very important values in life, which is punctuality and always living by the truth."
Dagoberto Velarde said his son was kicked out of the Air Force Academy after the victim made allegations and an investigation was started.
Court transcripts of previous court hearings show the victim went to Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs in severe pain. She was later diagnosed with a concussion, according to a federal investigator who testified at Velarde’s detention hearing.
The victim was crying in pain and needed two doses of pain killers, a nurse who treated the victim previously told investigators.
The defendant’s roommate told investigators that Velarde admitted that he continued having sex with her even after she asked him to stop, according to court records.
DNA testing showed Velarde had sex with the victim, an investigator testified.
At one point during the rape investigation, investigators said three people said they heard Velarde say, “Something to the effect of, ‘I’m an international student and I have to kill somebody to get kicked out of the academy.’”
The victim told another cadet within minutes of the alleged sexual assault, an investigator previously also testified.
Velarde is being held in the Jefferson County Jail.
Most Air Force Academy cadets are required to be United States citizens, but international students are exempt from this requirement, according to the U.S. Air Force Academy website.
The trial is expected to last five days.
dint seem right
“Most Air Force Academy cadets are required to be United States citizens, but international students are exempt from this requirement, according to the U.S. Air Force Academy website. “
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Okay. I think I see the FIRST big problem....
We ought not to have ANY student other than an American student in ANY of our Military Academies.
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It seems like ‘Dad and Mom’ didn’t do as good a job as they thought they did with ‘Jr’ concerning what is and isn’t Rape. Then again, different countries, different versions of what qualifies as Rape. Idiocy.
Another reason for not having ANY international students in our Military Academies.
I thought the exact same thing! What does this sentence mean? “Most Air Force Academy cadets are required to be United States citizens, but international students are exempt from this requirement, according to the U.S. Air Force Academy website.”
4. The roommate of the alleged rapist sand the alleged rapist *told him* that despite the girl asking him to STOP, he continued with his sexual attention/attack.
5. His comment about practically having to kill someone to get thrown out of the Academy....? To me that shows INTENT as he’s already decided there is an actual limit to what he would be allowed to get away with.
I’m not a nice person. Fry him like he’s dry bread.
Probably not on our dime. Usually foreign allies will pay to send students for their services.
But you are right, this guy is a pig.
Cadets will come from countries, allies of the US. The country foots the bill for a full time student. Others are true exchanges for a year; Sandhurst/West Point comes to mind. Kind of a “year abroad” thing.
It make sense to have a guy on the general staff that is a “buddy” of someone on their general staff.
“What is it with these men from south of the border? Do they think they can just take what they want? Must have a mighty low opinion of women.”
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1. Depending on what country a person comes from (religiously) actually has a great deal of how they think because many countries have an unsaid ‘group’ think, instead of ‘individual’ responsibility.
2. Yes, they actually do think they can just take what they want. Believe it or not, religion (and I’m not just talking Islam) has a ‘domination’ factor in the equation. No, I’m NOT blaming Christianity. Folks in Christian countries can *use* Christianity as a foil just as well as Islamist use their false faith.
3. Yeah, they actually do have a low opinion of women. Again, sub-sets can use Biblical passages for control of women for their own wants; they don’t read the other passages that cover the responsibility of correct/proper care/defending a woman/girl-boy/child.
I’m very sorry if this seems to rag on Christianity. Non-Christians use their own standards to do what they want: I used Christianity in this case as Peru is supposed to be a Christian/Catholic country.
There are foreign exchange cadets accepted every year. Typically they had been from countries where we had defense treaties in place such as NATO. It’s also a diplomatic bs function which is why this jerk was there.
yup
Why are they giving coveted spots at a military academy to foreigners????
There is no romantic in any of this.
This is about power and aggression, not romance.
Talk to women from Annapolis. It's not just men from south of the border.
We have always trained pilots for allied nations.
I recall we trained pilots for Iran when it was under the Shaw.
thx
Mikey Weinstein was unavailable for comment.
Believe it or not, Peru in fact, DOES, have an air force.
I worked with a nurse once, who had been married to a famous film director from South America. He was the love of her life, but she finally divorced him, because he slept with one woman after another. He begged her not to leave him, “_______ please stay! I love you! Those other women don’t mean ANYTHING to me!” I’ve often heard that it is very common, and a part of their culture, for men to behave so. That it’s an expression of their machismo. If I recall, it is the reason Lucy and Desi, who loved each other madly, divorced, nonetheless. He just would NOT stop sleeping around.
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