Ruling Limits Courts' Role In Environmental Review
National News
Three people are accused of beating, torturing and prostituting a mentally disabled teen. Waquita "Goddess" Wallace, 33, Richard Marquis Harper, 20, and a woman identified only as "April" were charged in federal court with sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and sale into involuntary servitude. The victim may have been held for up to a month.
Here is the story as told by FBI Special Agent Cynthia Dockery in an affidavit:
The victim had been living with a female cousin who tried to convince her to have sex with her boyfriend. That man later forced the victim to have sex with him twice. The cousin left the victim at Wallace's house in late May or June. The cousin owed Wallace $3,300 and Wallace told the victim that the debt was now hers to pay off through prostitution and her food stamp and disability income.
The victim was forced to have sex with men and Wallace took her identification, wallet and clothes. Wallace beat her with fists and blunt objects and burned her with cigarettes and lighters. Wallace told her that she, Wallace, would kill her cousin, mother and grandmother if she tried to leave. Wallace, Harper and April held her head under water when she said she wanted to leave. The victim was rescued by her sister, who called the police.
Related listings
-
Texas Fired Her For Dissing 'Creationism'
National News 07/03/2008The longtime director of science curriculum claims the Texas Education Agency illegally fired her because she forwarded an email announcing a lecture by a speaker who opposes teaching creationism in science classes. Christina Castillo Comer claims th...
-
Fidelity Director May Be Liable For Insider Trading
National News 07/02/2008The 9th Circuit reversed and remanded a ruling for attorney J. Thomas Talbot, a member of the board of directors of Fidelity National Financial, who was accused of insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Judge Wardlaw found that Ta...
-
NY Sets Bar High for Adult Victims of Predatory Clergy
National News 06/30/2008New York’s highest court has set the bar prohibitively high for proving certain civil cases against predatory clergy by ruling that a woman cannot sue a rabbi who had an affair with her because she was not “uniquely vulnerable and incapable of self-p...