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A defense attorney for a South Salt Lake businessman accused of smuggling a Mexican woman into the U.S. and abusing her shredded the alleged victim's credibility in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, claiming she is motivated to lie in order to avoid deportation.
On the second day of a three-day trial for Raul Alvarado, 41, defense attorney Bel-Ami de Montreux accused Alvarado's victim of fabricating rape and abuse allegations against Alvarado in order to secure immigration benefits available to undocumented immigrants who are crime victims.
During a cross examination of the woman's testimony on Wednesday, Montreux questioned how she was allegedly severely beaten, yet worked at a public market where no one ever asked about her appearance. The victim kept no photographs of her injuries, and there are no hospital records that indicate she ever received treatment, he pointed out.
Following testimony from the victim, the victim's father and an FBI agent who interviewed Alvarado following his March 8 arrest, Judge Ted Stewart ruled on Wednesday that prosecutors didn't meet their burden of evidence that Alvarado physically abused his victim.
The jury on Thursday will deliberate whether he encouraged an undocumented person to reside in the U.S. illegally — and will likely be asked to not consider the victim's testimony about domestic violence — when they decide Alvarado's fate.
Alvarado's victim, whom the The Salt Lake Tribune is not naming because she is allegedly a victim of sexual abuse, testified Tuesday that Alvarado romanced her when the two met in Michoacan, Mexico, in 2004 and persuaded her to move to Utah.
She testified she'd been told Alvarado paid a coyote $2,000 to take her in a truck over the border. She said she became pregnant with Alvarado's child shortly after they met and agreed to go to Utah to start a family with the man. But when she arrived in Salt Lake City, Alvarado told her he'd brought her there to work and "not to be a princess."
She claimed Alvarado forced her to clean, work long hours at a Latino market he owns, and beat her when she tried to rest, which caused her to have miscarriage. She testified that Alvarado raped her as she was recovering from the miscarriage, and raped her on eight to 10 other occasions. She left Alvarado eight months after her arrival, and received help from Holy Cross Ministries, which assists victims of domestic violence. The case proceeded to federal court last year.
He argued that the victim has a history of illegally entering the U.S. on her own, including a stint in 1999 where she got into the country and lived in Oakland, Calif., with a former husband. Her divorce proceedings were taking place in Mexico at the same time the woman was allegedly being beaten by Alvarado in Salt Lake City, Montreux argued.
The victim testified she conducted her divorce through the mail and remained in Utah in 2005, when the alleged abuse occurred. She said she never left Alvarado because he'd threatened to harm her or her family members in Mexico if she reported his alleged assaults on her to police.
Alvarado is charged with one count of felony inducing an undocumented immigrant to enter and reside in the United States, but the victim's abuse allegations are relevant because prosecutors needed to prove that Alvarado caused her "serious bodily harm" as an element of the broader offense of smuggling her into the country.
Montreux criticized the FBI's handling of the case, saying the agency's policy to not record, videotape or provide written statements of confessions given by suspects is unfair. Alvarado admitted to smuggling the woman into the country during an interview following his arrest, according to FBI agent Gregory Knapp, but Montreux said the agent's testimony isn't enough.
"It's your word against his word," Montreux said."Today you walk into court with only your word on what he said, without any proof to back it up."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Parkinson countered by saying Knapp would lose his job if he lied. He argued Alvarado is guilty of smuggling because the man admitted to paying the coyote, which shows he knew that it was illegal to bring the woman into the country.