Farouk Murad
Posted on 06/07/2003 1:22:36 AM PDT by Marak
Saturday, June 7, 2003
By CHRIS W. COLBY, cwcolby@naplesnews.com
A Saudi Arabian man charged with sexually molesting a 12-year-old girl on Marco Island is wanted for arrest on a new set of charges that prompted a barrage of criticism of state prosecutors by the man's attorney.
Jerry Berry, attorney for Farouk Murad, 66, complained prosecutor Steve Maresca reneged on an agreement to add a new lewd and lascivious molestation charge, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison, to one Murad already faces in the July 2002 sexual assault. Murad also is charged with false imprisonment/kidnapping in the earlier case.
"I've been telling my client, even a person from Saudi Arabia can get a fair trial here, and I've been assuring him we have a fair and impartial system, and now the State Attorney's Office goes and plays games with the rules," Berry said Friday.
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Maresca has filed a motion asking Lauren Miller, the judge presiding over the older case, to force the defendant to surrender. Berry will ask Miller to quash the warrant because it stems from the original allegations, and the law doesn't give the prosecutor the authority to make such a request. A hearing to discuss the matter is scheduled for Thursday.
"I will make my points known in the hearing. I don't think responding in the newspaper is proper or ethical before a hearing," Maresca said.
Murad's case drew criticism from the victim's family and police after a Collier County Circuit Court judge set Murad's bond at $50,000. Murad, a former high-level academic with the Saudi Arabian government who was visiting the United States, flew back to his native county shortly after paying the bond amount in cash.
Murad was arrested July 13, 2002. The warrant on the new case was filed last Aug. 23 and sets a new bond amount at $1 million.
Marco Island Police Capt. Thom Carr said the new charge is "based on the same incident." In her interview with police, the girl didn't recall the earlier attack, but it came out when she later spoke with Department of Children and Families caseworkers, Carr said.
While the arrest warrant was filed almost 10 months ago, Berry said he learned of its existence only about six weeks ago, proving, he said, that Maresca has been underhanded. Maresca should have amended the present case, as is appropriate in a case involving multiple allegations involving similar victims and similar circumstances, Berry said. Or Maresca could have gone to Miller to make the court aware of the new allegations and asked for Murad to turn himself in, Berry said.
Instead, Maresca went to a different judge and got an arrest warrant and an unnecessarily high bond, tactics Berry described as unprofessional.
"Mr. Maresca has a lousy case, he can't prove Mr. Murad did anything illegal, and this is the way Mr. Maresca has chosen to punish Mr. Murad," Berry said.
Berry said he offered to have his client return to the United States to turn himself in, but only if Maresca agreed to cancel the arrest warrant. Maresca refused, although he wouldn't say why.
"If Mr. Berry says his client wants to turn himself in, that's great. That's what this motion is all about," Maresca said.
Carr said the new arrest warrant has been entered into the National Crime Information Center database as well as being filed with Interpol. The United States has no extradition treaty with the Saudi government, so Murad is untouchable there, Carr said. But if he leaves and travels to another country with such an extradition treaty, Murad could be picked up there, and in that lies Berry's qualm with Maresca's tactic.
If Murad, a retired employee of the United Nations, turns himself in without there being an arrest warrant, he would simply be arrested, with a judge setting reasonable bond, Berry said. If the charge is added to the existing case, Murad would simply have to enter a new plea of innocence, something his attorney can do for him in writing.
But if Murad is arrested in a foreign county, he would be "subjecting himself to months of incarceration as he's transported from country to country while he's transferred here," Berry said.
Murad sexually molested the girl and held her against her will at Hilton Marco Island Beach, police said. According to the arrest report, Murad, a longtime friend of the girl's family, had taken the girl and her 10- and 8-year-old brothers to his room. The boys left the room to get ice, and Murad kissed and groped the girl. When the boys returned, they knocked on the door, but Murad didn't answer. The girl ran away. In a later interview with police, she said Murad touched her and tried to persuade her to undress.
Carr said police are frustrated and believe Murad will never face his charges.
"I don't know how they're going to force him to do that," Carr said. "He fled the first time, why wouldn't he do it again?"
Berry said it's inaccurate to say Murad has fled. His plane ticket back to Saudi Arabia was purchased long before the arrest. And there hasn't been a court hearing that's demanded his presence.
Drunks, perverts, and crooks. What a corrupt organization.
Hypocrite.
The UN is irrelevant and impotent.
Ah, you're a liberal I see, liberals ALWAYS go for the insult when they can't defend their positions. Well, as to my life, I've never even had a parking ticket, I've never stolen money from anyone let alone poor people in nations who are being starved and tortured, I wouldn't consider voting to preserve a dictator, I wouldn't think of padding an expense account, I have never stolen food from a company restaurant (let alone silverware and china), I've never run over anyone and claimed diplomatic immunity (actually, I've never run over anyone at all), anything more you'd like to know?
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