Attorneys for one of the two suspects accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in a bathroom stall at Rockville High School said the girl texted their client the day before the incident and agreed to have sex with him, according to court papers filed Monday.
“This was a consensual act. It was preplanned,” said David Wooten, an attorney for Jose Montano, 17.
Wooten’s comments echo those made last week by an attorney for the other suspect in the case, Henry Sanchez Milian, 18. “All parties were willing participants,” that attorney, Andrew Jezic, said again Monday.
The court filing Monday, in which Wooten and defense attorney Maria Mena asked for a court hearing to have the terms of Montano’s bond reviewed, has the potential to add even more controversy to a case that already has been marked by it, owing to the suspects’ status as newly arrived illegal immigrants.
Many parents in Montgomery County have questioned what the school system knew about the teenagers before enrolling them at Rockville High. And the case has gained national attention in the debate on illegal immigration.
Even if there were such communications made between the girl and one of the suspects, the criminal case would hinge on whether the girl agreed at the time to have sex — in a bathroom stall, with two people — or whether she was attacked.
Capt. James Humphries, commander of the Montgomery Police Department’s Special Victims Investigation unit, which is handling the case, said he stands by the investigation’s findings.
“The events were horrible. They were not consensual,” he said.
Police Chief Tom Manger has described the attack as “brutal” and said he is confident that police have a strong case.
The police affidavits in the case, filed to obtain criminal charges against the suspects, both ninth-graders, describe several sexual assaults inside a boys’ bathroom during school hours the morning of March 16. The allegations in the affidavits were largely based on the girl’s statements to police.
The encounter started about 9 a.m., according the police, when Montano and the girl, who knew each other, began talking in a hallway. Montano asked the girl for sex, and she refused, prompting Montano to keep asking and to push her into the bathroom, the affidavits stated. The girl was pulled into a stall as she tried to resist by grabbing a sink, according to the affidavits.
Sanchez Milian then entered the stall, according to the affidavit, and the two young men took turns raping the girl as she cried out in pain and repeatedly told them to stop, according to the affidavits.
According to the affidavits, and to a prosecutor’s account in court, police obtained forensic evidence in the bathroom that seemed to confirm that sex activities had taken place.
Detectives spoke with both teenager, describing what they said in court papers that identified the girl as “Victim A.”
Montano “denied having any sexual contact with Victim A,” detectives wrote. “Montano stated they went into the bathroom to tell jokes.”
Sanchez Milian “initially stated nothing happened,” detectives wrote. “Then changed his statement multiple times and admitted to having sex with the victim with his friend Montano.”
On March 17, the suspects appeared in court and were ordered held on no-bond status, based on the seriousness of the charges and their immigration history that made them extreme flight risks. Montano was charged as an adult.
On Monday, the attorneys for Montano asked for a hearing to have his bond conditions reviewed. They cited new evidence that has surfaced — the text messages allegedly sent by the girl to their client. The girl, they said, wrote about previous sexual activity with Montano and agreed to have sex with him “the next day, during P.E. class.”
“This new evidence completely changes the court’s bail review analysis, insofar as considering the nature and circumstances of the crime alleged,” the attorneys, Wooten and Mena, wrote. “The defendant appears to be actually innocent, and should be released forthwith.”
Mena said her client doesn’t understand why he has been charged with a crime: “He comes from a wonderful, hard-working family who supports him 100 percent.”
