Lawyers for two of the four boys accused of gang-raping a girl and attacking a second girl on Wednesday questioned the tactics used by Ramapo police to secure confessions from the boys and seize a cellphone with potentially incriminating video showing sex.
The lawyers maintained the statements from the boys were obtained illegally, and the boys and their parents didn’t understand their constitutional rights against self-incrimination, and that officers lied while testifying.
The county lawyers prosecuting the case have countered that the officers properly explained the constitutional warnings against self-incrimination to the boys and their parents, and the boys voluntarily signed the statements.
Family Court Judge Sherri Eisenpress, sitting in New City, heard testimony Tuesday and Wednesday from police, family members and one of the boys. She has not ruled on whether the statements would become evidence.
The boys admitted to differing degrees that they sexually abused the two girls, including holding down a 14-year-old girl and taking turns raping her and trying to rape a 12-year-old girl, despite cries to stop, prosecutors said.
The alleged sexual abuse continued over two days during the week of June 11, with a third attempt during the period. The boys were arrested June 16, a day after the girls told their parents and reported the alleged abuse to police.
Larry Gantt, the attorney for Guerson Bellevue, accused Detective Peter Louzan of not telling the truth when he testified Wednesday about his interview with the 13-year-old.
Gantt said Louzan started questioning Bellevue by giving the boy his Miranda warnings and got him to admit he had sex with one of the girls by asking questions involving whether the boy thought the sex was consensual. If the sex were consensual, Louzan told the boy that he might not consider it a crime, Gantt said.
Gantt said Louzan already knew from the girls that there were allegations of forced sexual activity. Gantt said Bellevue’s mother told police that she didn’t want her son to speak to them without an attorney present. Gantt said her request should have stopped all questioning.
“Based on that you have to question everything he’s testified about,” said Gantt, a former New York City police lieutenant. “As far as I am concerned, he was not telling the truth. He was trying to justify how he handled the case. He did what we called in the city ‘testi-lying.’ ”
Gantt also asked Eisenpress to suppress any video and photos on Bellevue’s cellphone and iPod, which Gantt said the police obtained illegally without a warrant. Gantt said the other boys told police about a video, but he has yet to see the video.
Defense lawyers have maintained the boys were invited into the house on the first day and there are emails, Facebook conversations and text messages between some of the boys and the two girls.
Attorney David Goldstein said his client, Ray-Jey Alexis, 12, testified Wednesday that he didn’t understand his rights when they were explained to him by Ramapo detectives.
“My client thought he had to answer their questions,” Goldstein said. “You got a 12-year-old boy — do you think he knew what his rights were? The statements should be suppressed.”
If Eisenpress throws out the statements, it likely would put more emphasis on the girls’ accounts of what happened, should the case go to trial.
Eisenpress has not scheduled a date to announce her rulings. Goldstein said the lawyers would meet Wednesday with the court to establish a schedule toward a trial or disposition of the felony charges, including first-degree rape, first-degree criminal sex act and other sexual crimes.
Eisenpress oversaw two suppression hearings Tuesday in the case against Kensley St. Fleur and Jerry Jean-Baptiste, both 13. Their lawyers also contended the boys were not properly given their Miranda warnings.
The Journal News is not attending the hearings inside the courtroom. Eisenpress ordered that any media outlet would be banned from her courtroom if it chose to print the names of the four boys charged as juvenile delinquents related to attacks.
If she finds them guilty, Eisenpress can order the boys held in juvenile detention from 18 months to three years. She can send them to detention until they are 18 years old.
In an exclusive interview with The Journal News, the victims said that two friends of the younger girl, Alexis and Jean-Baptiste, went to their home uninvited June 11 and entered by climbing through a window. The 14-year-old said they pressed themselves against her.
The next day, all four boys returned to the victims’ home, again entering through a window, the girls told the paper.
The 14-year-old victim said they locked her in a bedroom, with two pinning her down and one standing guard while the fourth raped her. She said she kicked the attacker in the groin and ran into the bathroom, where they forced their way inside and continued the attack.
The boys went to the home a third time June 13, pursuing the 12-year-old after the teen said she was having her period, the girls said.
The younger girl said they took her pants off and tried to tie her up with a cord, but she fought them off.
The girls told their parents June 14, and were taken June 15 to a doctor who alerted police, who later made the arrests.
By Steve Lieberman - The Journal News
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