Witness describes sex slavery at 13 (San Antonio)

San Antonio Express News ^ | 12/09/2010 | Craig Kapitan

[Responsibility2nd]

The acting out started after her parents separated when she was 8. By the time she was 10 or 11 she had become a frequent truant from school, preferring to smoke crack cocaine with gang members and prostitutes.

That was the testimony Wednesday from a San Antonio teen, now 16, who said she was held captive and repeatedly raped at age 13 by brothers Juan and Bobby Moreno. They were her drug suppliers, she said.

Juan Moreno, 45, could face up to life in prison without parole if jurors in the 379th District Court find him guilty of super-aggravated sexual assault of a child.

He also is being tried on charges of human trafficking, aggravated kidnapping and compelling prostitution.

He is the first of four men charged in the case, including his younger brother, to go to trial.

For most of the day, the teen gave sordid details of captivity — tied to a soiled bed at the Moreno brothers' East Side crack house as they sold her for sex to neighborhood men.

It started when the men locked her in the bathroom after she stopped by with a friend to purchase drugs, she said.

“Spider (Bobby Moreno) was holding me down while J.J. (defendant Juan Moreno) was tying me up,” she said, adding that they took turns raping her. Juan Moreno “called me a bitch and told me that if I were ever to say anything he would come after me.”

Over the next week or two, the assaults would be repeated many times as random men were let into the bedroom, she said.

When she'd struggle, Bobby Moreno would inject her with drugs, she said.

The girl, who had short cropped hair and a quiet voice, often looked into her lap, appearing embarrassed as prosecutors Kirsta Melton and Mary Green questioned her.

At one point she asked for a break, crying outside the jury's presence as she left the courtroom.

“I was scared because of what might happen to me and my family, and I thought it was all my fault everything happened,” she said to explain why she didn't report being held captive until months after she said she escaped.

The teen's demeanor changed to frustration as defense attorney William Maynard repeatedly went over inconsistencies in her statements.

The time frame of the incident changed from December 2007 to February 2008, and the number of times she said she tried to escape also changed, he pointed out.

“Are you just making this up as you go along?” Maynard asked.

“Why would I make it up?” she responded, frequently telling the attorney and jurors she was getting “pissed off” by his questions.

Prosecutors tried on Wednesday to introduce testimony from a woman who said she was tied up and raped by the defendant in 1997, when she was 8.

Judge Ron Rangel did not allow jurors to hear it.

[Responsibility2nd]

From Yesterday.....

 

Kidnapping, pimping of teen described at trial

 

 

In addition to supplying their East Side neighborhood with drugs, brothers Juan and Bobby Moreno had a side offer for addicts who dropped by their crack den three years ago, prosecutors said Tuesday.

For $25 extra, neighborhood men were allowed to rape a 13-year-old girl the Moreno brothers were holding captive, Assistant District Attorney Kirsta Melton told jurors in opening statements at Juan Moreno's trial.

“They would keep her drugged up. They would keep her tied up,” Melton said. “They kidnapped her, they raped her together in concert, they threatened her life and they sold her to man after man.”

Juan Moreno, 45, is the first to go to trial of four men, including his younger brother, charged with assaulting the girl from the last week of 2007 until January 2008, when authorities said she escaped.

He faces between 25 years and life in prison without parole if jurors find him guilty of super aggravated sexual assault of a child. He could also face five years to life in prison if convicted of human trafficking or aggravated kidnapping with intent to compel prostitution. A fourth charge, compelling prostitution, is punishable by up to 20 years.

Moreno was arrested last year, more than a year and a half after the kidnapping was alleged to have occurred. The Bexar County Sheriff's Office Human Trafficking Unit began investigating after the Poe Middle School student made an outcry to her juvenile probation officer.

The girl's credibility should be an issue, defense attorney William Maynard told jurors in the 379th state District Court.

“If you decide this case upon emotion, an innocent person will go to prison,” he said. “She lied to her probation officer, she lied to the police officers. She will lie in this court.”

The girl, now 16, is expected to testify Wednesday.

Prosecutors Melton and Mary Green said she was locked in a bathroom and overpowered by the Moreno brothers after she went there to buy drugs.

She “seemed like the perfect victim — 13 years old, constant runaway, truant from school and addicted to drugs,” Melton said. “She was someone who was available and no one would miss too much.”

But despite often disappearing, the girl would always call each day to say she was OK, her mother testified Tuesday. The time of the alleged kidnapping was the only period in which she never heard from her daughter, she said.

Authorities said the girl escaped after a neighborhood man saw her in the brothers' doorway and recognized her. Prosecutors asked news media not to identify the man for his safety. He testified that he could hear Juan Moreno's voice from inside, yelling at the girl to return to the bedroom.

“That's when I grabbed her hand, told her, ‘Come on girl,' and took off running,” the man testified. “She looked like hell. She was distraught. She didn't want to tell me anything.”

Prosecutors said the girl didn't make an outcry to authorities for months because the Moreno brothers, both alleged gang members, lived in her neighborhood. After one escape attempt, they held a knife to her and told her they knew she had younger siblings, Melton said.

[CWCoop]

Is the girl Hispanic, too? And were any of these people legal residents?

[Frantzie]

Isn’t Kay Bailey Hutchinson going to vote for teh Dream Act. I am sick of open-borders RINOs in TX and Florida.

These perps need to get the death penalty for this.

[Izzy Dunne]

super-aggravated sexual assault

Not just assault.

Not just sexual assault.

Not just aggravated sexual assault.

But SUPER-AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT !

[WOBBLY BOB]

To presstitutes in the media, asking that question is irrelevant (and probably racist,too)

[Sherman Logan]

I find it discouraging that there are apparently large numbers of males (I refuse to use the term men for them), even drug addicts, who will jump at the chance to rape a young girl.

Kudos to the guy who helped her escape.

[cicero2k]

And they are shutting down on-line adult services internet sites because of this crap, even though they (on-line adult services) have nothing to do with it.

Nice job law enforcement, I hope it makes you feel better.

[GeronL]

Hey its a lifestyle choice., who are we to judge??

//sarcasm

[B4Ranch]

I too many times have wondered how a man finds a woman who voluntarily agrees to have sex with him when they are as ugly as some of the guys you see in the wanted posters. Queers in the park or hookers maybe? I imagine those guys out of desperation would hit a knothole if the sun was keeping the fence warm.

[La Lydia]

No. This is our colorful, enriching, multicultural diverse society.

[Responsibility2nd]

If you don’t see a direct connection between on-line adult services and crimes like this (sexual, drug fueled slavery of children), then you are willfully blind.

Do you not know that most porn sites traffic off of under-aged children? And those that don’t are in fact feeding on and supporting the illegal sexual abuse of minors?

Any pro-porn proponent should take their nasty sticky fingers over to DU and click with those types.

[kevslisababy]

I’m sick of the idiotic redundancy in the news stories I hear, like a “terrible tragedy” or “killed dead”, as if there are any other kinds.

Just trying to hype, and they end up sounding stupid.

[Sherman Logan]

I understand many men are frustrated by their inability to attract women. Which may in many cases lead them to feel some partially understandable degree of hostility towards the opposite sex.

Despite this, I still find it hard to understand the mindset of a rapist, especially of a young girl.

[GeronL]

dang it, we should just stop this whole civilized thang, it gets boring.

/sarc

[Sherman Logan]

Do you not know that most porn sites traffic off of under-aged children? And those that don’t are in fact feeding on and supporting the illegal sexual abuse of minors?

While not a proponent of this industry, I believe you are factually incorrect in your first statement. Some sites do this, but I believe it is a distinct minority. The penalties if caught are severe, and you can make plenty of money in porn legally.

Or you used to be able to, before free sites started giving it away.

As far as your second comment, there are lots of "barely legal" sites that would certainly qualify to make your point.

Or so I'm told.

[cicero2k]

Do you not know that most porn sites traffic off of under-aged children? And those that don’t are in fact feeding on and supporting the illegal sexual abuse of minors?

Need links so we can study up. Otherwise this is hand waving so links to other hand waving sites don't cut it. We're very objective.

Seems like law enforcement would have the porn sites shut down in a flash if they can be tied to child actors. Even if overseas. If RIAA can do it over copyright infringement, why can't the FBI?

[skooldayz]

But was it rape rape?

[RC51]

“But despite often disappearing, the girl would always call each day to say she was OK, her mother testified Tuesday. The time of the alleged kidnapping was the only period in which she never heard from her daughter, she said...”

I’m not buying it, 13 year old addicted to crack wandering the streets? I call BS on the entire story.

BTW great mother she has there.

[texmexis best]

“I find it discouraging that there are apparently large numbers of males (I refuse to use the term men for them), even drug addicts, who will jump at the chance to rape a young girl.”

There aren’t but once you cross into drug use, the other deviant behaviors are just additional sordid details in your worthless life.

When my dad was small, there was a guy in the neighborhood who molested an underage girl. One morning about 2 AM the molester heard a knock at his door. When he opened the front door, five guys grabbed him and dragged him into the street and beat him horrifically. He was left breathing on the curb. A few minutes later a cop car happened by and he was taken to the hospital where he stayed for several months healing. Not long after he got out of the hospital he moved to another city.
The reason the cop happened by is that he was sitting in his car a little ways down the street to make sure that the guy wasn’t killed.

1. The cops knew why they did it.
2. The cops knew who did it.
3. The cops may very well have known when it was to be done.
4. The cops filed no charges against anyone. Officially it is still unsolved and there are officially no clues as to who did it.

This is how the situation was handled in the America of the 1930s. Our laws have changed since then and we continue to have a problem.

My dad has never answered whether my grandfather was part of the group that beat down this guy. I suspect he was.