Friday, May 5, 2017

Rockville rape suspect freed after prosecutors drop rape charge

Henry Sanchez
Rockville High School gang rape suspect Jose Montano has been released by a Montgomery County judge, after prosecutors dropped rape charges against him in the alleged March 16 attack in a school bathroom. According to Fox 5, prosecutors are now going to pursue child pornography charges against Montano in juvenile court (he had been charged as an adult in the rape case).

Earlier this morning, the Washington Post reported that rape charges against the second suspect, Henry Sanchez, would also be dropped. The Post reported that he, too, would face child pornography charges, for having images of the alleged rape victim that were forwarded to him by Montano.

What we are not hearing, are the specifics regarding why prosecutors dropped the charges. Whatever evidence they are working with has obviously not been made public. Dropping the charges means the public is essentially being told a violent sexual encounter between a 14-year-old girl and two men in a school bathroom was a consensual and legal act. That is hard to believe, as Sanchez's defense attorney acknowledged to the Post. The public has a right to know what is going on here, in regard to the justification for dropping charges.

Equally important: If Montano is indeed being released, will he be arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE)? ICE has declined to comment publicly on Montano, citing his age. But both Montano and Sanchez were detained by the Border Patrol after illegally entering the U.S. last year, and set free to family members under the Obama administration's "Catch and Release" policy. ICE did place a detainer on Sanchez. Will the County alert ICE to Montano's release, and Sanchez's release, should it occur?

Stay tuned.

19 comments:

  1. You should seriously consider STAYING IN YOUR LANE! The majority of your posting are related to commercial, residential, and office market activity with a smattering of political crap. When you start to offering up targeted (i.e. occasional) comments on crimes of color, you become deplorable. There have been several incidents of criminal activity that don't raise a blip on your radar, yet something that has the race or immigrant perp element you become the judge, jury, and executioner. This area is not your forte', back off.

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    1. I should "stay in my lane," and let other news sites report the news? This is the biggest story in Rockville this year, and I'm going to report it until the end. My readers expect to know what's going on in Rockville.

      Can you tell us a bit more about the gang rapes perpetrated by U.S. citizens against students in MCPS this year, which you claim I haven't reported on?

      I would suggest that it's our feckless County leaders who need to "back off" from the levers of power, if they A) condone this behavior during school hours, and B) have let political considerations override justice in this case. We need to know more than what we've been told by the press and MCPS super this morning. What is going on here?

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    2. Robert -

      I am a daily reader of both your Bethesda blog and occasionally this one. I appreciate the time and effort you put into informing the community. I agree the incident is a big story for the area and merits coverage. Unfortunately, it is a big story only because of the political implications of the alleged perpetrators. I think you are putting your finger too heavily on the scales. Evidence now suggests that the encounter was consensual and pre-planned by the alleged victim. With respect to the child pornography case, evidence suggests the pictures were sent by the girl. My understanding is that this is such a common occurrence in schools these days that it is rarely prosecuted on its own. County leaders have a duty to ensure they are not prosecuting more aggressively than they would without the political implications of the situation.

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    3. 9:23: I have to say I'm quite uncomfortable with the State's Attorney's (and Washington Post editorial board's) tacit endorsement of the defense argument that "she was asking for it."

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  2. This article is about Montano. Why are you showing Sanchez's mugshot?

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    1. Because they won't let us have Montano's mugshot. The article is half about Sanchez.

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  3. So there is no Statutory Rape law. She was only 14 consensual or not.

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    1. 9:16: What we learned via this incident, is that the creepy old guys in Annapolis apparently changed the law years ago to allow college guys to hook up with 8th graders. I guess when you're in office that long, it warps your mind.

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  4. This is a disgusting article and its author reprehensible. We do not need to breathe life into xenophobia or racism. Why not rely instead upon the founding commandment of our judicial system - innocence before judgment. If the prosecutors dropped the case, it's because they don't have the evidence to prove these men did anything wrong. You, however, don't seem to be bound by such limits as truth.

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    1. Where is there "xenophobia or racism" in this article? There's a burden when dropping charges in this case, which police professionals (which is quite different from the politicians who are professing the accused were innocent) claimed was a slam dunk, a "violent assault," and for which they stated they had collected forensic evidence - including blood - from the scene.

      "Disgusting and reprehensible" is hiding the Rockville, Montgomery County, and Maryland sanctuary bills when the environment turned toxic, and then cynically rolling them back out, now that a wave of the magic wand has ended the gang rape nightmare for sanctuary proponents. That's politics, not principle.

      What is the victim's position on the case? We haven't been told. If she had filed a false report, she would have been charged for that. She wasn't. Where is the forensic evidence and medical report? Were the victim and her family threatened by MS-13 to go silent, as the mother in Gaithersburg was a few months ago?

      In a case that tore the county apart, our officials have an obligation to present a cogent, convincing argument for acquittal. What they're asking us to believe, is that a 14-year-old girl planned a romantic rendezvous in a filthy school bathroom, with a couple of college age men who don't exactly resemble Antonio Banderas, and had already put out X-rated video of herself - and then, after all happened just as she had planned it, she for no apparent reason frantically called the police and claimed she was gang-raped. Why?

      Sounds like a story spawned more from male fantasy than the mind of a 14-year-old girl, even in 2017. Come on. "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

      We need more reporters who employ critical thinking and skepticism, not less.

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    2. Romantic rendezvous? This entire topic here shows is how out of touch you are with today's teens.

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    3. Today's teen girls find filthy bathrooms romantic? It sounds like you're the one out of touch. It also sounds like our warped elected officials are trying to facilitate not only more wilding by MS-13 in our county, but to facilitate more statutory rapes. Nobody ever talked about it, but the girl who was murdered after joining MS-13 at Watkins Mill HS was in a relationship with a 21-year-old man in the gang. She was 15. That wasn't even covered by the "four years" loophole those sick perverts in Annapolis passed.

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    4. Romance? hahaha Yeah, in your day, maybe. Not now Gampy.

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    5. I prefer to call Mike Miller "Mikey Haircut," but I guess Gampy applies to him, too. Nice one.

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  5. "Wilding"

    Nice allusion to the Central Park Jogger case, Dyer. You realize what happened in that, don't you? All the charges against the young suspects were VACATED and a completely different person was ultimately convicted.

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    1. 10:39: You need to get out more often - wilding is a general activity by gangs all over, including Baltimore where I hear it all the time. Central Park has zippo to do with this case, where it was a slam dunk with evidence until somebody waved a political magic wand. We'll know if MoCo honored the detainer on Sanchez if we never hear from him again. If we hear anything more about him being in court, you'll know the County Council and Executive helped him escape, as they did with the assault weapon guy.

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    2. When are you in Baltimore to hear it all the time?

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    3. I frequently have business over in Baltimore, and Baltimore County. It's common knowledge that gangs go "wilding" in the Inner Harbor to prey on tourists, and that's the term everybody uses. I know it's hard to understand in Montgomery "Giving MS-13 the key to the County" County.

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  6. wilding = old people "partying"

    Woke up an optimist
    Sun was shinin', I'm positive
    Then I heard you was talkin' trash
    Hold me back, I'm 'bout to spaz

    I'm FourFiveSeconds from wildin'
    And we got three more days 'til Friday
    I'm tryna make it back home by Monday mornin'
    I swear I wish somebody would tell me
    Ooh, that's all I want

    Four Five Seconds Lyrics | MetroLyrics

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