http://www.chron.com/
BROWNSVILLE — A judge denied bond today to a man accused of bringing his 14-year-old stepdaughter across the Texas-Mexico border illegally to get an education, but instead holding her captive and sexually abusing her.
The girl, who suffered "substantial bodily injury" during her approximate two months in captivity, has been returned to her mother in Matamoros, Mexico, police said.
The girl's mother approached a U.S. Customs officer on Oct. 2 on an international bridge near her home in Matamoros because she was worried that the girl's stepfather wasn't allowing any family to visit her.
The girl was found the next day in a locked trailer in Brownsville. Police issued a warrant for the stepfather, Juan Miguel Medrano, and a tip led them to a relative's trailer home late Saturday where he was found hiding in a closet.
Magistrate Phil Bellamy denied bond for Medrano, a U.S. citizen, today.
The girl, who is not being identified because she is a juvenile victim of sexual abuse, told detectives she had moved in with Medrano about six months ago but had been kept in the trailer, sometimes with her ankle chained, for about the past two months, arrest affidavits show.
She said Medrano sexually abused her and sometimes got her drunk. She said she once woke up bound to a bed by her wrist and ankles, unsure whether she'd been abused. The detectives said they found evidence of bondage and of "substantial bodily injury" due to sexual assault.
Brownsville police Lt. James Paschall said the girl required medical treatment but that he could not comment further.
The girl had crossed the border illegally from Matamoros, Mexico, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, and was to live with Medrano while she attended school in Brownsville.
Police told the Brownsville Herald she was found in the trailer "delirious and not in her right mind."
The girl was housed briefly in a women's shelter before being returned to her mother in Mexico. It was unclear whether her mother still was married to Medrano.
Officials were trying to get her asylum to return to Brownsville as a crime victim during the investigation, Paschall said.
Medrano is charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child, unlawful restraint and endangerment, and child abandonment.
Aggravated sexual assault of a child, the most serious charge, is punishable by five to 99 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
Illegal immigrants are especially vulnerable to sexual assault and domestic violence, said Meredith Linsky, an attorney with the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum and Representation Project.
"We certainly see a lot of sexual abuse and domestic violence perpetrated, " she said. "It's important that this come to light for the public safety as well as the humanitarian aspect of these young and often defenseless victims
2006-10-12
00:19:12
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