A California man is facing multiple charges after he allegedly forced the driver of a single-vehicle collision into his car, and later raped her on two occasions in December 2024 in Maryland.
A California man is facing multiple charges after he allegedly forced the driver of a single-vehicle collision into his car and later raped her on two occasions in December 2024 in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.
Montgomery County police identified the man as 27-year-old Mauricio Martinez-Garcia, of Madera, California, in a Wednesday news release. He is facing two counts of first-degree rape, one count of third-degree sexual offense, two counts of kidnapping and five counts of second-degree assault.
According to police, the charges date back to Dec. 18, 2024, when a woman ordered a meal at a restaurant on the 16100 block of Shady Grove Road. While waiting for her order at the restaurant bar, an “unknown male” approached her and paid for her meal after insisting on covering the tab.
After returning to her table, the woman ate some of her meal but stopped and left the restaurant before finishing her plate because she felt sick, according to Montgomery County police.
On the drive home, the woman was involved in a single-vehicle collision at the intersection of Sam Eig and Great Seneca Highways. She was approached by Martinez-Garcia, police said, who offered her help but then forced her into his car against her will.
Martinez-Garcia drove away from the crash to his apartment in Montgomery County, where authorities said the woman was raped. She was raped a second time after he drove the woman to her home in Prince George’s County.
Martinez-Garcia was officially arrested Tuesday, nearly a year after the woman reported the assault and underwent a forensic examination. Police said investigators were able to confirm Martinez-Garcia as the suspect after being alerted to a secondary analysis of a DNA sample that had been collected through a separate investigation carried out by the Department of the Army.
Police were not able to confirm to WTOP whether the “unknown male” the woman encountered at the bar was Martinez-Garcia. The case remains under investigation.
While Martinez-Garcia is awaiting extradition from California to Maryland, police are urging anyone with information about the suspect or incident to contact the Montgomery County Department of Police Special Victims Investigations Division at (240) 773-5400.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
Sudan is a country with a long memory: Our history stretches back to the biblical Kingdom of Kush, one of Africa’s greatest civilizations. The war now waged by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia is unlike anything we’ve ever faced. It is tearing the fabric of our society, uprooting millions, and placing the entire region at risk. Even so, Sudanese look to allies in the region and in Washington with hope. Sudan is fighting not only for its survival, but for a just peace that can only be achieved with the support of partners who recognize the truth of how the war began and what is required to end it.
Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, Duke of York, appears set to be stripped of his last honorary military title as the British royals continue their efforts to distance themselves from King Charles III’s younger brother over his links to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“We’ve seen Andrew surrender the military positions that he’s had and we’re looking now at the one remaining position he has, which is the honorary vice admiral position, and we’ve got a process underway for that” to be removed, Defense Secretary John Healey told Britain’s Sky News on Sunday.
In a separate interview on the same subject with CBS News’ partner network BBC News, the defense chief said “it’s a move the king has indicated we should take.”
Mountbatten Windsor is the late Queen Elizabeth II’s third child. He spent decades in public life as a working member of the royal family, but revelations of his historical ties Epstein have turned him into a pariah figure. In 2016, he was named in a civil lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that Epstein paid her to have sex with the former prince on several occasions. Mountbatten Windsor has repeatedly denied the claims, but he settled the case out of court with Giuffre in 2022, for an undisclosed sum.
Then-Prince Andrew, Duke of York walks behind the coffin during the ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall on September 14, 2022 in London, United Kingdom.
Martin Meissner/WPA Pool/Getty
That settlement failed to stanch criticism of the former prince and the resulting pressure on the royal family, however, as new information continued to emerge about his historic connections with Epstein in the wake of a damning 2019 interview with the BBC’s Newsnight, in which he defended his ties to the disgraced financier.
In the years after that interview, right up until this year, amid revelations about correspondence between Epstein and the then-prince, the royal family appeared reluctant to intervene, allowing him to step away from public duties and to give up many of his titles and privileges of his own volition.
Last week, however, in a landmark move, King Charles announced that his younger brother would be deprived of the title of prince and told to leave his 30-room, tax-payer-funded Royal Lodge home in Windsor.
One of the few titles Andrew Mountbatten Windsor still holds is honorary Vice Admiral in the Royal Navy, which he received on his 55th birthday in 2015. It is unclear how long the process to remove that title, which defense chief Healy has now confirmed is underway, might take.
The former prince had a 22-year career in the Royal Navy, including serving as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War, and commanding the anti-mine vessel HMS Cottesmore.
Asked about the ongoing scandal, President Trump told CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in an interview that aired Sunday on 60 Minutes that “it’s a terrible thing that’s happened” to the royal family.
“That’s been a tragic situation,” he said. “And, I mean, I feel badly for the family.”
CBS News has contacted the royal family for comment on the pending removal of the former prince’s Royal Naval title.
LEWISBURG — Stephanie Balliet discovered her life’s work amid one of the most difficult times in her young life.
Following an assault by a stranger at the age of 12 while attending a sleepover at a friend’s house, Balliet received services from Transitions PA during the ensuing three-year-long court case involving her alleged abuser.
This page requires Javascript.
Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
>> Video above: Previous coverageA man who was arrested for allegedly attempting to rape a woman on a running trail in Orange County could have his bond revoked.According to court records on the Orange County Clerk’s website, a motion has been filed to revoke 23-year-old Jacoby Vontell Tillman’s bond.The Orange County Sheriff’s Office spent months searching for Tillman, following a report that he assaulted a woman while she was jogging on the Little Econ Greenway Trail in July.OCSO said Tillman attacked a woman from behind and attempted to rape her. The woman said he grabbed her and wrapped both arms around her neck, choking her, causing her to see stars and eventually blacking out.Once she woke up, the woman said she was still face down and realized her shorts and underwear were gone, according to the OCSO. Tillman was arrested on Oct. 10 and charged with attempted sexual battery, battery by strangulation and false imprisonment. However, he was released from jail on Sunday on a total bond of $9,500, according to the Orange County Corrections Department.Tillman’s bond release sparked outrage from Orange County Sheriff John Mina.”This is atrocious! He should have never been released,” Mina said on Facebook.The attempted rape victim has also shared concerns about Tillman’s release. “I think he is a danger. Not just to women, but to kids,” she said.Tillman’s criminal record includes convictions for aggravated battery and misdemeanor battery in Orange County.His girlfriend at the time also reported abusive behavior, including an incident where he choked her until she lost consciousness, according to the OCSO. This is a developing news story and will be updated as more information is released.
>> Video above: Previous coverage
A man who was arrested for allegedly attempting to rape a woman on a running trail in Orange County could have his bond revoked.
According to court records on the Orange County Clerk’s website, a motion has been filed to revoke 23-year-old Jacoby Vontell Tillman’s bond.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office spent months searching for Tillman, following a report that he assaulted a woman while she was jogging on the Little Econ Greenway Trail in July.
OCSO said Tillman attacked a woman from behind and attempted to rape her.
The woman said he grabbed her and wrapped both arms around her neck, choking her, causing her to see stars and eventually blacking out.
Once she woke up, the woman said she was still face down and realized her shorts and underwear were gone, according to the OCSO.
Tillman was arrested on Oct. 10 and charged with attempted sexual battery, battery by strangulation and false imprisonment.
However, he was released from jail on Sunday on a total bond of $9,500, according to the Orange County Corrections Department.
Tillman’s bond release sparked outrage from Orange County Sheriff John Mina.
“This is atrocious! He should have never been released,” Mina said on Facebook.
The attempted rape victim has also shared concerns about Tillman’s release.
“I think he is a danger. Not just to women, but to kids,” she said.
Tillman’s criminal record includes convictions for aggravated battery and misdemeanor battery in Orange County.
His girlfriend at the time also reported abusive behavior, including an incident where he choked her until she lost consciousness, according to the OCSO.
This is a developing news story and will be updated as more information is released.
A former FBI agent will be sentenced in Montgomery County, Maryland, after being convicted of raping three women in tattoo parlors he operated.
Former FBI agent Eduardo Valdivia, who was convicted of raping three women in small tattoo parlors that he operated, could face up to 122 years in prison when he’s sentenced in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
Valdivia, 31, was found guilty in July 2025 of six counts of second-degree rape and two counts of fourth-degree sex offense. He is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday afternoon.
Prosecutors said Valdivia raped the three women after offering them free tattoos in exchange for modeling opportunities.
“He created an illusion in their minds that if they continue contact with him, they were going to to make their professional modeling dreams come true,” according to county prosecutors’ sentencing memo, reported by the Washington Post, which says prosecutors are seeking the statutory maximum, 122 years behind bars.
Circuit Court Judge Cheryl McCally will be able to consider an earlier felony arrest in Montgomery County. The jury that convicted Valdivia of the tattoo shop rapes didn’t hear about that earlier arrest during his trial last summer.
Dr. Maurizio Miglietta, a surgery professor at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, has been indicted on charges including first-degree rape and attempted first-degree rape.
Photo by Linkedin
A surgery professor at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Harlem has been accused of allegedly raping a woman in his apartment after showing her a firearm, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Tuesday.
Dr. Maurizio Miglietta, 56, who also serves as an honorary police surgeon providing trauma consultation for the NYPD, was indicted Tuesday on charges including first-degree rape and attempted first-degree rape, according to court filings. He faces additional charges, including sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment, and criminal possession of a firearm. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Prosecutors allege that Miglietta met a 28-year-old woman through a medical networking event. On June 5, she went to his Financial District apartment expecting to discuss business ventures.
Once inside, Miglietta allegedly kissed her without consent. When she tried to push him away, he allegedly lifted his shirt to show a firearm he said was loaded.
Manhattan DA Alvin BraggPhoto by Lloyd Mitchell
The indictment alleges he placed the gun on a coffee table near her head before orally raping her and attempting to vaginally rape her. The woman was able to leave after initially being prevented from doing so, prosecutors said.
“As alleged, this prominent doctor used his position to lure a woman to his apartment under the guise of professional networking and mentorship,” Bragg said. “Instead, he allegedly displayed a firearm that he said was loaded, and sexually assaulted her as she repeatedly said no.”
Migiletta was arrested on Monday, Oct. 13, and arraigned before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ann Thompson on Oct. 14.
The court executed a warrant, issued a discovery scheduling order, and placed a temporary order of protection for the alleged victim. Bail was set at $1 million cash, $3 million insured bond, or $3 million partially secured surety bond. He is scheduled to return to court in January.
Bragg said the investigation is ongoing and urged anyone with information about similar incidents to contact the DA’s Special Victims Division at 212-335-9373.
amNewYork did not receive a response from Miglietta’s attorney or Touro College, where he had been working for the past 14 years, at the time of publication.
new video loaded: Elon Musk’s Father Accused of Child Sexual Abuse
By John Eligon, Kirsten Grind, Karen Hanley, June Kim and Stephanie Swart•
Errol Musk has been accused of sexually abusing five of his children and stepchildren since 1993, a Times investigation found. Family members had appealed to Elon Musk for help.
John Eligon, Kirsten Grind, Karen Hanley, June Kim and Stephanie Swart
A former Fort Belvoir, Virginia, Army soldier was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday for permanently injuring his newborn daughter and sexually assaulting his wife.
A former U.S. Army private stationed at Fort Belvoir was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for twice abusing his infant daughter, who is now permanently disabled, and raping the child’s mother.
Austin Blair Johnson, 35, pleaded guilty earlier this year to two counts of assault resulting in serious bodily injury and one count of sexual abuse in connection with the crimes in 2012 and 2013, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alexandria said in a news release.
The 15-year sentence handed down Friday is to be served consecutively to a 15-year sentence Johnson is serving for injuring his 6-week-old son with his new wife in Montana in 2017.
Fort Belvoir case
According to court documents, on June 24, 2012, Johnson, then an active duty soldier residing on Fort Belvoir, was watching his infant daughter, who was born prematurely 15 days earlier.
The baby was crying, “so Johnson picked her up and carried her, but she continued to cry,” the release said. While holding the baby in front of him with one hand under each of her arms, Johnson “rapidly and forcefully shook” the victim multiple times before letting go of her, causing her to flip and land on her head, the release said.
Johnson then picked up the baby and ran with her upstairs to a bedroom where he woke his then-wife. According to court documents, Johnson falsely told her he had accidentally dropped the baby, and had successfully broken her fall with his foot.
The couple took the baby to the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital ER, where she presented with a fever, bruising on her head and shoulder and blood coming out of her mouth, according to the release.
A CT scan conducted there revealed the baby’s skull had been fractured. She was transferred later to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Walter Reed Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with extensive injuries and remained hospitalized for the next 10 days.
The day she was discharged, the baby was again left in Johnson’s care while his wife was out and he again “rapidly and forcefully shook” her before dropping her, the release said. The baby was 26 days old at the time.
The next morning, the infant’s mother took her for a follow-up appointment with a pediatrician at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, where the baby began having seizures and was sent to the ER.
She was later transferred later to the PICU at Children’s National Medical Center, where doctors discovered myriad injuries, including a second skull fracture, and identified extensive brain damage, the release said.
When she was discharged on July 20, 2012, the baby was placed in the custody of Child Protective Services, where she remained for approximately 14 months until she was returned to the custody of Johnson and her mother.
Two days later, shortly after her third birthday, she underwent a hemispherectomy “during which the entire left side of her brain was removed in an effort to control her irrepressible seizures,” the release said.
The victim is now legally blind, non-verbal and the entire right side of her body is paralyzed, prosecutors said. Cognitively, she functions at the level of a mature infant.
As part of his sentence in the case, Johnson was ordered to pay over $1.1 million in restitution.
In addition to his assaults on the baby, Johnson was convicted of sexually assaulting the baby’s mother in 2013 at their home on Fort Belvoir.
“After she rebuffed Johnson’s requests to be intimate with her, Johnson proceeded without her consent. [The victim] protested and tried to hit Johnson to get him to stop, which he eventually did,” the release said.
Johnson was never court-martialed or criminally charged in the assaults.
Montana case
Five years later, Johnson was living in Montana with his new wife and 6-week-old son when she went upstairs to try on jeans, asking Johnson to watch the baby for a few minutes, according to an article in Stars and Stripes.
She came back down to find the baby limp and unresponsive. He, too, suffered permanent brain damage from violent shaking.
Johnson was quickly arrested and sentenced in the crime on March 1, 2018.
The boy’s mother told prosecutors she didn’t know about Johnson’s past abuse of his first child.
It was unclear Friday if the military ever investigated Johnson or why it took over a decade for federal prosecutors to take up the case. Johnson was indicted in July 2024 and pleaded guilty in May in connection to the assaults on his wife and daughter.
The Army Criminal Investigative Division did not immediately return a request for comment Friday.
“Military medical protocol requires hospital workers to notify criminal investigators and others if they even suspect child abuse,” Stars and Stripes wrote. “It’s unclear whether that happened but what is known is that the Army never court-martialed Johnson. It took nearly 13 years for Johnson’s previous abuse to catch up with him.”
SALEM — A New York man pled guilty to charges of rape, open and gross lewdness, and distributing obscene matter to a minor on Monday in Superior Court in Salem, according to the Office of Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker.
Anthony Bowden, 34, of Albany, New York, was sentenced to four years in state prison to be followed by three years probation, during which time he must stay away and have no contact with the victim, have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 16, undergo a sex offender evaluation, and register with the sex offender registry board (SORB). Bowden was represented by attorney Christina Rose Kenney.
This page requires Javascript.
Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
AVIGNON, France — They are, on the face of it, the most ordinary of men. Yet they’re all on trial charged with rape. Fathers, grandfathers, husbands, workers and retirees — 50 in all — accused of taking turns on the drugged and inert body of Gisèle Pelicot while her husband recorded the horror for his swelling private video library.
Among the nearly two dozen defendants who testified during the trial’s first seven weeks was Ahmed T. — French defendants’ full last names are generally withheld until conviction. The married plumber with three kids and five grandchildren said he wasn’t particularly alarmed that Pelicot wasn’t moving when he visited her and her now-ex-husband’s house in the small Provence town of Mazan in 2019.
It reminded him of porn he had watched featuring women who “pretend to be asleep and don’t react,” he said.
Like him, many other defendants told the court that they couldn’t have imagined that Dominique Pelicot was drugging his wife, and that they were told she was a willing participant acting out a kinky fantasy. Dominique Pelicot denied this, telling the court his co-defendants knew exactly what the situation was.
Céline Piques, a spokesperson of the feminist group Osez le Féminisme!, or Dare Feminism! said she’s convinced that many of the men on trial were inspired or perverted by porn, including videos found on popular websites. Although some sites have started cracking down on search terms such as “unconscious,” hundreds of videos of men having sex with seemingly passed out women can be found online, she said.
Piques was particularly struck by the testimony of a tech expert at the trial who had found the search terms “asleep porn” on Dominique Pelicot’s computer.
Last year, French authorities registered 114,000 victims of sexual violence, including more than 25,000 reported rapes. But experts say most rapes go unreported due to a lack of tangible evidence: About 80% of women don’t press charges, and 80% of the ones who do see their case dropped before it is investigated.
In stark contrast, the trial of Dominique Pelicot and his 50 co-defendants has been unique in its scope, nature and openness to the public at the victim’s insistence.
After a store security guard caught Pelicot shooting video up unsuspecting women’s skirts in 2020, police searched his home and found thousands of pornographic photos and videos on his phone, laptop and USB stick. Dominique Pelicot later said he had recorded and stored the sexual encounters of each of his guests, and neatly organized them in separate files.
Among those he had over was Mahdi D., who testified that when he left home on the night of Oct. 5, 2018, he didn’t intend to rape anyone.
“I thought she was asleep,” the 36-year-old transportation worker told the panel of five judges, referring to Gisèle Pelicot, who has attended nearly every day of the trial and has become a hero to many sexual abuse victims for insisting that it be public.
“I grant you that you did not leave with the intention of raping anyone,” the prosecutor told him. “But there in the room, it was you.”
Like a few of the other men accused of raping Pelicot between 2011 and 2020, Mahdi D. acknowledged almost all of the facts presented against him. And he expressed remorse, telling the judges, “She is a victim. We can’t imagine what she went through. She was destroyed.”
But he wouldn’t call it rape, even if admitting that it was might get him a lighter sentence. That led prosecutors to ask the court to screen the graphic videos of Mahdi D.’s visit to the Pelicot home.
In June, authorities took down the chatroom where they say Dominique Pelicot and his co-defendants met. Since the trial started on Sept. 2, it has resonated far beyond the Avignon courtroom’s walls, sparking protests in French cities big and small and inspiring a steady flow of opinion pieces and open letters penned by journalists, philosophers and activists.
It has also drawn curious visitors to the city in southeastern France, such as Florence Nack, her husband and 23-year-old daughter, who made the trip from Switzerland to witness the “historical trial.”
Nack, who noted that she, too, was a victim of sexual violence, said she was disturbed by the testimony of 43-year-old trucker Cyprien C., a defendant who spoke that day in court.
Asked by the head judge, Roger Arata, whether he recognized the facts, Cyprien C. answered that he “did not contest the sexual act.”
“And the rape?” Arata pressed. The defendant stood silently before eventually responding, “I can’t answer.”
Arata then began to describe what was on the videos implicating him. They are only shown as a last resource and on a case-by-case basis. But for many in the courtroom, such detailed descriptions can last several minutes and be just as heavy as watching them. Gisèle Pelicot, who is in her early 70s, has chosen to remain in the courtroom while the videos are shown. Unable to watch, she usually closes her eyes, stares at the floor, or buries her face in her hands.
Experts and groups working to combat sexual violence say the defendants’ unwillingness or inability to admit to rape speaks loudly to taboos and stereotypes that persist in French society.
For Magali Lafourcade, a judge and general secretary of the National Consultative Commission of Human Rights who isn’t involved in the trial, popular culture has given people the wrong idea about what rapists look like and how they operate.
“It’s the idea of a hooded man with a knife whom you don’t know and is waiting for you in a place that is not a private place,” she said, noting that this “is miles away from the sociological, criminological reality of rape.”
Two-thirds of rapes take place at private homes, and in a vast majority of cases, victims know their rapists, Lafourcade said.
It can be difficult at times to reconcile the facts with the personalities of the accused — described by loved ones as loving, generous and considerate companions, brothers and fathers.
Cyril B.’s tearful older sister told the court: “It’s my brother, I love him. He’s not a mean person.” His partner described him as “kind, his heart on his sleeve and full of attention.” She insisted that he isn’t “macho” and that he had never forced her to do anything sexually that she wasn’t comfortable with.
Although Lafourcade does not believe “all men are rapists,” as some have concluded the trial shows, she said that unlike the #MeToo accusations that have ensnared French celebrities, the Pelicot case “makes us understand that in fact rapists could be everyone.”
“For once, they’re not monsters — they’re not serial killers on the margin of society. They are men who resemble those we love,” she said. “In this sense, there is something revolutionary.”
Gisèle Pelicot waived anonymity to make public the trial of her former husband and the 50 men accused of joining him in raping her. The trial has revived the question of consent within French law and turned Ms. Pelicot into a feminist icon. Catherine Porter, an international correspondent for The New York Times based in France, explains.
Catherine Porter, Rebecca Suner, Christina Shaman, Laura Salaberry and Farah Otero-Amad
A French woman whose husband is accused of enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged said at his trial Thursday that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes.
“The police saved my life by investigating Mister P.’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband, who is one of 51 men from all walks of life standing trial over the alleged attacks.
Pelicot had initially wished to remain anonymous but has since appeared in public and her lawyer said she’d agreed to be fully identified. She insisted that the trial take place in public so the full facts of the case could emerge.
Gisele P. listens to her lawyer Stephane Babonneau addressing media as she leaves the courthouse during the trial of her husband, accused of drugging her for nearly 10 years and inviting strangers to rape her at their home in Mazan, a small town in the south of France, in Avignon, Sept. 5, 2024.
CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty
Pelicot, now 71, had remained stoic and silent through the three first days of the high-profile case, communicating only through her lawyers. But she revealed her emotion on the stand Thursday when she recounted the moment in November 2020 when investigators first showed her the images of a decade of sexual abuse allegedly orchestrated and filmed by her husband, identified in court as Dominique P.
“My world is falling apart. For me, everything is falling apart. Everything I have built up over 50 years,” she told the court. “Inside, I’m in ruins.”
“Frankly, these are scenes of horror for me,” she said of the images as her husband listened with his head bowed.
“I’m lying motionless on the bed, being raped,” she added, calling the video “barbaric.”
“They treat me like a rag doll,” she told the panel of five judges, adding that she had only gained the courage to watch the video in May, years after she was first made aware of it.
“Don’t talk to me about sex scenes. These are rape scenes,” she said, stressing that she had never engaged in swinging or any other libertine sex.
Lawyers for some of the defendants questioned in court on Wednesday whether the couple had had a libertine relationship, or whether it was credible that Pelicot had noticed nothing for the entire decade of the alleged abuse.
The line of questioning appeared to upset the plaintiff, although she stayed put while her three children briefly left the courtroom.
“Of course she was offended,” said her lawyer, Antoine Camus. “She wanted to respond. We felt her bobbing up and down behind us, saying, ‘I want to answer. I just have to answer’ and we told her, ‘Tomorrow!’”
“I am absolutely not complicit,” she said Thursday. “I never pretended to sleep, nothing of the sort.”
A folder labelled “abuse”
Pelicot’s husband is accused of abusing her between 2011 and 2020, drugging her with sleeping pills and then recruiting dozens of strangers to rape her, lead investigator Jeremie Bosse Platiere told the court Wednesday.
Dominique Pelicot was exposed by chance after he was caught filming up women’s skirts in a local supermarket.
On Tuesday, he answered “yes” when asked if he was guilty of the accusations against him.
The 71-year-old father of three allegedly documented his actions with meticulous precision on a hard drive with a folder labelled “abuse.”
That enabled French police to track down more than 50 men suspected of raping his wife while she was drugged. A third of them were identified using facial recognition software, Bosse Platiere said.
The senior police chief for the Hautes-Alpes region said he had hand-picked investigators “who had the stomach” to face videos and images of abuse.
As part of their investigation police drew up a list of 72 individuals suspected of abusing Pelicot. The investigators counted around 200 instances of alleged rape, by her husband and more than 90 strangers they say he enlisted through an adult website.
Prosecutors say the alleged assaults took place between July 2011 and October 2020, mostly in the couple’s home in Mazan, a village of 6,000 people in the southern region of Provence.
Most of the suspects face up to 20 years in prison for aggravated rape if they’re convicted.
Eighteen of the 51 accused are in custody, including Dominique Pelicot, but 32 other defendants are attending the trial as free men, having not been placed under arrest. One other suspect, who remains at large, will be tried in absentia.
The trial is expected to last four months, until late December, which Camus said would be “a totally awful ordeal” for Gisele Pelicot.
“For the first time, she will have to live through the rapes to which she was subjected for 10 years,” of which she has “no memory,” he told AFP.
The alleged abuse started when the couple was living near Paris and continued after they moved to Mazan two years later, prosecutors said.
The suspect was said to have given the men strict instructions so they would not wake her up when they abused her during the night. No aftershave or cigarette odor were allowed, and they had to warm their hands before touching her, and get undressed in the kitchen so they would not accidentally leave clothes behind in the bedroom.
Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse.
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced a civil rights investigation into sexual abuse of women behind bars in two California prisons, citing numerous reports of groping, inappropriate touching and rape by correctional workers.
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation violated the rights of women at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino by failing to protect them from sexual abuse by prison staff.
The move comes after dozens of women held at the two prisons in the last two years brought multiple lawsuits against the corrections department, alleging that they were subjected to sexual harassment, molestation and rape by prison staff under the color of authority.
More than 30 current and former correctional officers have been named in the lawsuits, which graphically document allegations of sexual abuse stretching back more than a decade. The complaints also allege that, when they were at their most vulnerable, the women were punished and sometimes abused further for reporting their assailants.
Since 2014, at least 17 correctional officers accused of sexual misconduct in California women’s prisons have been fired, have resigned or have retired, according to records. Prison sexual abuse data, however, show few disciplinary consequences for the correctional staff despite hundreds of complaints — with most of the allegations not being sustained.
“No woman incarcerated in a jail or prison should be subjected to sexual abuse by prison staff who are constitutionally bound to protect them,” said Asst. Atty. Gen. Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Every woman, including those in prison, retains basic civil and constitutional rights and should be treated with dignity and respect. California must ensure that the people it incarcerates are housed in conditions that protect them from sexual abuse.”
“Correctional staff at both facilities reportedly sought sexual favors in return for contraband and privileges,” Clarke alleged, adding, “I’ll note that the correctional officers named in these allegations range in rank and have even included the very people responsible for handling complaints of sexual abuse made by women incarcerated at these facilities.”
In a statement responding to the probe, CDCR Secretary Jeff Macomber said, “Sexual assault is a heinous violation of fundamental human dignity that is not tolerated — under any circumstances — within California’s state prison system. Our department embraces transparency, and we fully welcome the U.S. Department of Justice’s independent investigation.”
Clarke said the investigation will examine reports from hundreds of women of inappropriate touching, groping and forcible rape.
“Sexual abuse and misconduct will not be tolerated in prisons,” said U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada for the Central District.
More than two dozen protesters marched in front of the California Institution For Women in Chino in April 14.
(Mark Boster / For The Times)
“Concern about the physical safety of people inside California women’s prisons is not new,” said U.S. Atty. Phillip A. Talbert for the Eastern District of California. “Media coverage, state audits, advocates’ efforts and private litigation have sought to draw attention to an issue often unseen by many in the community.”
Clarke said that at this stage, no conclusions have been drawn. However, federal prosecutors painted a dire picture of allegations made by the women California holds in the two prisons.
The federal action comes as a lawsuit accusing a former correctional officer at the Central California Women’s Facility of widespread sexual assaults is slated to go to trial in a California court. Filed on behalf of 21 women incarcerated at the California Institution for Women, the lawsuit included allegations of forcible rape, groping and oral copulation, as well as threats of violence and punishment with abusive conduct, from 2014 to 2020.
In addition, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed over the last decade making similar accusations against officers at the Central California Women’s Facility, Clarke said.
The legal actions pending against state correctional officers provide a road map of alleged depravity and inaction by prison authorities for federal prosecutors to pursue. For example, a lawsuit accuses a sergeant at the Chino prison of more than 40 often-violent rapes and other sexual misconduct in 2015. And a former officer at the Chowchilla prison, Gregory Rodriguez, awaits trial on 96 counts of sex crimes against nearly a dozen women held there.
Sexual abuse of incarcerated women is a widespread problem in facilities nationwide, with government surveys suggesting that more than 3,500 women are sexually abused by prison and jail workers annually. And it’s a problem in federal prisons as well as state lockups.
In April, the federal Bureau of Prisons closed the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif., where more than a half-dozen correctional officers and the former warden have either been charged or convicted of sexually abusing female inmates. The prison was so plagued by sexual abuse that it was known among inmates and workers as the “rape club.”
New Delhi — Thousands of angry students and other protesters marched on the streets of eastern Indian city of Kolkata in the West Bengal state on Tuesday demanding justice for a doctor who was brutally raped and killed earlier this month at a city hospital.
The police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse protesters who were on their way to the state secretariat building to demand the resignation of Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of the West Bengal state, whom they accuse of mishandling the case.
Indian TV networks aired videos showing protesters climbing barricades that had been placed at the Howrah Bridge, as police used water cannons to stop them.
Police use a water cannon to disperse activists carrying India’s national flag as they march toward the state secretariat amid protests over the rape and murder of a doctor, near Howrah bridge in Kolkata, Aug. 27, 2024.
DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty
The brutalized body of a 31-year-old doctor was found with multiple injuries in a lecture hall at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on Aug. 9. The female doctor had gone to the lecture hall to rest during a night shift when she was attacked. An autopsy confirmed sexual assault and multiple injuries sustained before she died, suggesting she resisted and may have been tortured before being murdered.
The Kolkata Police arrested a volunteer member of the force on Aug. 10 and have charged him with rape and murder, but the brutality of the case has drawn nationwide outrage, with medics across the country demanding safer workplaces and citizens demanding safety for women in a country with a shameful record of rape.
Doctors at public hospitals across India refused to work last week, turning away all but emergency patients as part of a national strike over the rape and murder.
Kolkata police had turned the city into a virtual fortress ahead of Tuesday’s planned protest, barricading all roads leading to the state secretariat and deploying 6,000 personnel in full riot gear. The police said they had not given permission for the protest march, and the Trinamool Congress party, which is in power in West Bengal state, alleged that it was an attempt by opposition parties to create unrest in the city.
Police clashed with the protesters Tuesday morning as some of the crowd managed to climb over the barricades, but the demonstrators were stopped before they could reach the state secretariat.
Activists stomp on police barricades as they march toward the state secretariat to demand the resignation of the chief minister of India’s West Bengal state, in Kolkata, Aug. 27, 2024.
DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is the opposition in West Bengal, claimed several students were injured Tuesday amid the clashes with the police and called for a new, 12-hour general strike in the state on Wednesday to protest the response.
India’s federal Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), which was tasked with investigating the rape-murder in Kolkata, subjected the prime suspect, Sanjay Roy, to a polygraph test last week, the results of which were yet to be released Tuesday. Many in the country hope the results will shed new light on whether other people could have been involved in the attack, as has been suggested by the victim’s father.
India reported an average of nearly 90 rapes per day in 2022, according to the most recent data available from the National Crime Records Bureau. Experts believe the real number could be much higher, as many rapes go unreported due to prevailing stigmas around sexual violence and a lack of faith in police investigations. Conviction rates remain low, with many cases becoming mired for years in India’s overwhelmed criminal justice system.
A suspected serial rapist wanted in connection with the rape of two women in Massachusetts in 1989 was arrested in Los Angeles on Thursday following a lengthy police chase.
Officers located the suspect, Stephen Paul Gale, 71, who was driving a dark SUV, shortly after 4 p.m. in the Wilmington area and began their pursuit, according to U.S. Marshals.
Gale led police onto the 110 and 405 freeways, eventually exiting the freeway onto surface streets on L.A.’s Westside while driving at a moderate speed, KTLA5-TV and ABC7-TV reported.
The hour and a half pursuit came to an end on Medical Plaza Drive in Westwood near Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, said Kevin Terzes, spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department.
Police surrounded the driver’s vehicle with guns drawn, KTLA5 reported. The driver surrendered and was taken into custody.
His arrest was the result of a decades-long nationwide manhunt for Gale, who was charged with aggravated rape and kidnapping of two women in Massachusetts in 1989.
He was recently identified through genetic genealogy as a suspect in a series of rapes in Boston from 1989-90, authorities said.
At the time of the incidents, Gale’s identity was unknown and he was referred to simply as the “Boston Strip Mall Rapist.”
Gale had been on the run for years before he was finally identified as the suspect in the 1989 case, according to federal authorities. He had last been seen in public in 2008.
In May, the U.S. Marshals Office released a wanted announcement for Gale in connection with the 1989 case and a reward for his capture of up to $5,000. In addition, the announcement said Gale was also wanted for questioning in connection with the series of rapes in the greater Boston area.
NEW YORK — A judge on Friday tentatively scheduled Harvey Weinstein’s planned retrial on rape and sexual assault charges to begin on Nov. 12.
Weinstein wore an American flag pin on his jacket during a brief appearance at a courthouse in Manhattan, which was delayed by about a half hour.
The former Hollywood movie mogul’s pretrial hearing in Manhattan criminal court was scheduled to address issues related to evidence in the case, including text messages.
At a hearing last week, prosecutors said they anticipated a November retrial. They told Judge Curtis Farber that they were still actively pursuing new claims against Weinstein, though they conceded that they hadn’t yet brought any findings to a grand jury.
Weinstein denies sexually assaulting anyone.
New York’s highest court threw out Weinstein’s 2020 conviction earlier this year, ruling that the original trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that weren’t part of the case.
The conviction had been considered a landmark in the #MeToo movement, an era that began in 2017 amid numerous allegations of sexual misconduct against the once powerful studio boss behind “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love.”
Weinstein had been convicted of rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actress and of forcing himself on a TV and film production assistant in 2006. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors have said one of the accusers in that case, Jessica Mann, is prepared to testify against Weinstein again. Gloria Allred, a lawyer for the second accuser, Mimi Haley, said last week that her client hadn’t yet decided whether to participate in the retrial.
The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named, as Haley and Mann did.
Weinstein, 72, is jailed on Rikers Island. His attorney, Arthur Aidala, has complained that Weinstein hasn’t been getting proper care in jail for diabetes, macular degeneration and fluid in his lungs and heart.
Weinstein also was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and is still sentenced to 16 years in prison in California. In an appeal filed there last month, his lawyers argued he didn’t get a fair trial in that case.
You may have recently heard of Katie Johnson. Though it’s gotten almost no coverage in the media landscape obsessed with the fact Biden is old, her horrifying story is at least being shared now.
Katie (not her real name) is a woman who filed a lawsuit in 2016 in which she claimed Donald Trump and a then mostly unknown to the public Jeffrey Epstein had raped her when she was just 13 years old. It’s a truly disgusting story. You can read more HERE.
Katie Says
But something which goes somewhat overlooked in that story is the other little girl. See, in Katie’s legal filing from April 2016 she says she was “forced to engage in an unnatural lesbian sex act with her fellow minor and sex slave” — Maria Doe — in front of Trump for his “sexual enjoyment.” Afterward “both minors were forced to orally copulate Defendant Trump by placing their mouths simultaneously on his erect penis until he achieved sexual orgasm.” The complaint adds:
“After zipping up his pants, Defendant Trump physically pushed both minors away while angrily berating them for the ‘poor’ quality of their sexual performance.”
It’s horrifying this should have happened to 13-year-old Katie. But she says Maria was even younger — just 12 years old!
Obviously the story was largely dismissed in 2016… but given what we know about Epstein and his underage sex trafficking ring now it all seems much more plausible. Hell, we’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop when it comes to a few key men known to have been close associates with the billionaire pedophile. And it turns out it may have dropped years ago before anyone knew they were looking for it.
Katie allegedly dropped her lawsuit to protect herself, claiming she and her family’s lives had been threatened by Trump and Epstein. Just before going public with her identity she got too scared and basically vanished. She remains a bit of a mystery — all we have is her legal filings. But perhaps an even bigger mystery is this Maria Doe. She didn’t even come forward with her own accusations. Who was she?
Maria’s Story
Well, here’s where it gets really tricky. There is a report out there which claims to have identified Maria as a child kidnapping victim… something which makes sense if she was a “sex slave” to Epstein at just 12 years old. But be warned, we’re kind of going down the rabbit hole here. This investigation was a partnership between a political watchdog group called the Justice Integrity Project and an independent reporter named Wayne Madsen. Madsen is actually known as a conservative conspiracy theorist, having once been connected to Alex Jones, though the two reportedly had a falling out. So take this all with a healthy dose of skepticism… Unlike Katie’s legal filing, this is not a firsthand account but rather investigative reporting which has not been corroborated by larger outlets. (Though to be fair, we don’t know if it’s even been looked at by larger outlets.)
According to this report, Maria was abducted from Waterbury, Connecticut when she was just 11 years old. They claim this child, the same one who would end up in that NYC town house with Epstein and Trump, was first reported missing by her mother on March 20, 1993. She was allegedly last seen the day before, talking with a man who was later IDed as a Colombian national who went by the nickname “Papito.” Little Daddy, for those who don’t habla.
The Waterbury Police Department‘s report says the tween was last seen outside of Nash’s Pizza, a popular eatery in the Puerto Rican neighborhood where she lived. Wait, sorry, not an actual real pizzagate?? Not exactly… Madsen and the Justice Integrity Project don’t point fingers at the restaurant — instead they say she was kidnapped by men involved in a trafficking ring like ones you might see straight out of the movies, taking little girls off the street for wealthy and powerful men.
It seems literally unbelievable… until you remember what we know to be true about what Epstein was doing. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t seem all that farfetched anymore…
So if they’re right, somehow this little girl was trafficked and ended up held by Epstein — and was sexually abused by the future President of the United States. Just a rotten sentence we wish we didn’t have to even think about.
The Mayor of Waterbury
An interesting link to all this… Does the name of the city sound familiar? Waterbury, Connecticut? No reason why it might to most, but it just might if you’re from the general area… or extremely knowledgeable on the subject of America’s worst political scandals of all time…
A man named Philip Giordano was elected mayor of Waterbury in 1995, just a couple years after Maria’s disappearance. He was also the Republican Party’s candidate for Senate in 2000 against Joe Lieberman. He lost that race, however, and instead of joining Congress continued to serve as Mayor until 2001.
Wait, so he started after Maria was abducted?
So… No reason it should be considered a connection… except for the coincidence he left office in disgrace when he was ARRESTED. See, Mayor Giordano was under investigation for municipal corruption, something about kickbacks, self-dealing, and working with the local mafia. Crazy stuff. But the craziest part is, during the investigation the FBI found something else — phone records and photos with a prostitute… and her 8-year-old daughter and 10-year-old niece. He had apparently paid the drug-addicted woman to let him have sexual contact with these two little girls.
Giordano was ultimately convicted of 14 federal counts of using his phone to solicit sex from two minors. He was sentenced to 37 years — apart from all the municipal corruption stuff. After that he faced state charges. Back in Connecticut he pleaded no contest to 4 counts of first-degree sexual assault and 4 counts of conspiracy to commit sexual assault. He got another 18 years for that, though they’re to be served concurrently.
He’s still in prison, thankfully.
Look, this is probably all a coincidence. A Republican president accused of raping a 12-year-old girl who happens to have been abducted from a town which, right after, had a Republican mayor who ended up being a convicted pedophile? We’re not saying it’s all part of some vast conspiracy, some huge ring of child molesters, but… Well, we know there was an underage sex trafficking ring. And while Epstein may be dead, and Ghislaine Maxwell is in prison, NO ONE ELSE has faced any consequences or been fully confirmed as a participant. We may not want to believe it, but we know for a fact there are many big names in business and politics who were involved. And frankly, the fact the news isn’t leading with this every night is kind of crazy… right?
Where Is Maria?
One last thing… though maybe the most important… What happened to Maria after all this??
We hope she’s living a happy life somewhere, healed and moved on. We don’t know how naive that hope may be, but that’s what we’d like to believe. The problem is…
As part of Katie Johnson’s lawsuit against Trump and Epstein, she found a corroborating witness. Tiffany Doe came forward as well, admitting to working for Jeffrey Epstein as a “party planner” — the one who first convinced Katie to attend his parties. (This started when Tiffany was just 22, so we may be talking about another trafficking victim being promoted here. She does say she started out “being paid to entertain various guests.”)
Tiffany backs Katie’s story completely, saying she “personally witnessed the sexual encounters” described. She adds something Katie doesn’t mention about Maria though.
In her sworn testimony she says she “personally witnessed” Trump and Epstein “physically threaten the life and well-being” of Katie. But she remembers something specific Trump told the 13-year-old:
“I personally witnessed Defendant Trump telling the Plaintiff that she shouldn’t ever say anything if she didn’t want to disappear like the 12-year-old female Maria, and that he was capable of having her whole family killed.”
JFC. He’s implying Maria was killed. What in the actual f**k. You can read Tiffany Doe’s entire declaration HERE btw.
So it’s possible the reason Maria never came forward is that she couldn’t… because he made her “disappear”?? This is… a whole other level of scary from a guy we were already terrified of. If this is true, it suddenly makes sense why Katie chose to drop her suit and run away, back into anonymity.
Of course, one other person could have testified against Trump here… Unfortunately before Jeffrey Epstein could be prosecuted and turn on all his co-conspirators in the sex trafficking ring, well… he died in police custody. It was reported a suicide, though no one has really believed that for five years.
Seems like we’ll never know what really happened to Maria. A 12-year-old girl. A sixth grader, ffs.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence and would like to learn more about resources, consider checking out https://www.rainn.org/resources.
[Image via MEGA/WENN/NYC Sex Offender Registry/Connecticut Department of Correction.]
A D.C. barber shop owner accused of drugging and then raping teenage girls has pleaded guilty to four of the assaults in a plea deal with prosecutors.
Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy speaks at a news conference after Julian Everett, 40, whose accused of raping several teenage girls, took a plea deal.(WTOP/Mike Murillo)
Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy speaks at a news conference after Julian Everett, 40, whose accused of raping several teenage girls, took a plea deal.(WTOP/Mike Murillo)
A D.C. barbershop owner accused of drugging and raping multiple teenage girls has pleaded guilty to four of the sexual assaults in a plea deal with prosecutors.
“We are pleased with the plea agreement, because this will take a dangerous predator off the streets,” said Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy.
As one of his victims watched on, Julian Everett, 39, of New Carrollton, pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree rape and took an Alford plea to a fourth count in a Prince George’s County, Maryland, courtroom. An Alford plea is taken when someone doesn’t plead guilty to a crime but agrees the evidence in the case would have led to a conviction.
Last week, Everett also pleaded guilty to the kidnapping of a minor and possession of child pornography.
Between the years of 2005 and 2015, prosecutors say Everett befriended three teenagers. Braveboy outlined how he would pick up these underage girls and serve them alcoholic drinks laced with an unknown substance.
“They would later wake up finding themselves in a different location than they started and having been sexually assaulted,” Braveboy said.
The four victims who came forward in this case ranged in age when they were assaulted, from 16 to 18 years old.
Braveboy said Everett, whose barbershop was near Howard University in D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood, targeted students at the college. Two of the victims were Howard students.
“While there are four victims, whose cases were resolved today, we believe that there are other victims out there who, for whatever reason, chose not to come forward,” Braveboy said.
In the plea deal, Everett would be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison. The sentencing is scheduled for January 2025, after he is sentenced for federal charges related to the case. Those charges include kidnapping and transporting a minor across state lines.
Everett was arrested on March 21, 2019, and is being charged for four sexual assaults of teenagers that happened in 2016, 2015 and 2005.
The victims
In the case of the first victim, a then 17-year-old girl told police that Everett picked her up from her D.C. home in August of 2016, and drove her to his barbershop. There, Everett is accused of serving the teen a drink which made her feel sick. She began to come in and out of consciousness as Everett allegedly drove her to his New Carrolton home and raped her.
He is also accused of filming and taking pictures of the sexual assault.
The second victim said Everett picked her up from her home in Virginia and promised they would remain in the area but instead took her to his home in Maryland, where he served her an alcoholic drink before, prosecutors said, he sexually assaulted her.
After the assault, the second victim accused Everett of breaking her phone when she tried to call 911 and punching her in her mouth, breaking a tooth, when she tried to scream for help. The 16-year-old girl was able to get away and flag down an oncoming car for help.
The third victim told police Everett took her to a gas station and served her a drink that made her unable to walk on her own. He is accused of then raping her in his home.
Her sexual assault was linked to Everett after DNA from her sexual assault kit matched the DNA submitted in the kit from the second victim.
The fourth victim, according to prosecutors, came forward after Everett’s arrest and said in 2015, when she was 16, he took her to his home and served her a mixed drink that made her lose focus, feel lightheaded and weak. Then the teenager said she was raped by Everett.
Electronic devices
In 2019, police searched Everett’s home and confiscated several electronic devices, including phones and computers. Prosecutors said they found sexually explicit images and videos taken of the victims, including videos of the sexual assaults, on Everett’s devices.
Also, images of a fifth unidentified victim were also found.
Prosecutors search for other victims
Prosecutors said they are still searching for other victims and encourage any victims to come forward if they haven’t already. Braveboy said this includes not only possible victims of Everett but any victims of rape.
“We want to take these violent predators off the streets. In order to do so, we do need victims to come forward and know that they can be and will remain anonymous to the public, obviously, in court, if we are pursuing a case they will have to testify,” she said. “But we take good care of our victims.”
Assistant State’s Attorney Jessica Garth thanked the victims for their bravery during this case, where one victim was waiting almost 20 years for justice. Garth said these types of cases are very difficult for victims, which results in some not coming forward.
“There’s a certain feeling of responsibility taken on by victims, when you’re the person who’s chosen to consume an alcoholic beverage, you take a certain amount of responsibility on yourself for what might happen to you, when you’re assaulted after consuming that beverage,” Garth said. “Even if you’re at the point where you cannot consent.”
Garth said in these cases, prosecutors must educate jurors on the fact that people who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol cannot consent, even if they took the alcohol willingly.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
Tokyo — Japan’s government is calling for stricter oversight of U.S. troops stationed in the country after a soldier was charged over the alleged sexual assault of a Japanese teenager in Okinawa. Prosecutors in the southern island region charged the U.S. soldier in March, top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters on Tuesday.
Local media said the 25-year-old man had been accused of assault, adding that he knew the girl was under 16, the age of consent in Japan.
The government expressed “regret” to U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel over the incident and called for stronger oversight of behavior by military personnel, Hayashi said.
Okinawa accounts for just 0.6% of Japan’s land mass but hosts about 70% of all the U.S. military bases and facilities in the country.
The U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is seen from Kakazutakadai Park in Ginowan, Okinawa prefecture, Japan, August 23, 2022.
PHILIP FONG/AFP/Getty
A litany of base-related woes has long grieved Okinawans, from pollution and noise to helicopter crashes and COVID-19 outbreaks, leading to complaints that they bear the brunt of hosting troops.
The 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. soldiers in Okinawa prompted widespread calls for a rethink of a 1960 pact that outlined the legal status of Japan-based U.S. military personnel.
Okinawa governor Denny Tamaki voiced his “strong indignation” at the latest case.
“That something like this was done to a minor not only causes great fear to local residents living side-by-side with U.S. bases but tramples on the dignity of women,” he told reporters. “The excessive burden of hosting military bases is an everyday matter for us, and is intolerable.”
Participants speak against the construction of U.S. military bases in Okinawa, in southern Japan, as they take part in a rally for peace on Constitution Day in Tokyo, May 3, 2024.
RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP/Getty
Anti-base sentiment in Okinawa has been displayed in particular over a plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
While the central government wants to move the base to a less populated part of Okinawa’s main island, many locals would prefer it be transferred elsewhere in the country. A nationwide poll by broadcaster NHK in 2022 found 80% of Japanese consider the current disproportionate distribution of U.S. forces “wrong” or “somewhat wrong.”
The latest point of test for U.S.-Japanese ties comes at a crucial time, with concern over nuclear-armed North Korea‘s ongoing weapons tests rising along with tension between Washington and China over Beijing’s increasingly assertive stance on Taiwan’s status and its territorial disputes with other nations.
