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A Baltimore defense attorney was charged on Tuesday with intimidating a rape victim and obstructing justice. The rape victim was told that she could risk deportation by President Trump's administration if she testified against his client.
The 38-year-old defense attorney, Christos Vasiliades, and another man charged in the case, Edgar Ivan Rodriguez, allegedly took advantage of the victim's immigration status and told her husband about the "current environment for immigrants in this country" to dissuade them from appearing in the court.
Amid Trump's crack down on immigrants, especially at a time when arrests have gone up by a staggering 40 percent in the past 5 months, many face uncertainty.
The accused, Mario Aguilar-Delosantos, is currently charged with second-degree rape, third- and fourth-degree sex offenses, and second-degree assault, for an incident that took place March 2016, the Baltimore Sun reported. But because of his attorney's arrest, Aguilar-Delosantos' trial has now been delayed until August.
According to testimony from the victim's husband, Vasiliades and Rodriguez intimidated the victim during a meeting on May 18, saying, "that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would likely be present in the courtroom for their client … and cited new federal laws and policies and maintained there is a high risk that" could also lead to their potential deportation.
According to court documents, Rodriguez was there are act as an interpreter since both the victim, and her husband, speak Spanish primarily.
The accused's party offered the victim US$3,000 in cash to not show up to the court because that would force the prosecutors to drop the case, Baltimore Sun reported. "You know how things are with Trump's laws now; someone goes to court, and boom, they get taken away," Rodriguez told the victim's husband, in the recorded conversation, according to the Attorney General's statement.
Vasiliades said his client was "very sorry, and could offer compensation if they did not come to court and testify against him." According to the court papers, "Vasiliades and Rodriguez indicated that the monetary compensation would help ensure that [they] would not get deported."
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Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh told Mic the two men were "capitalizing on ... a climate of fear" stemming from Trump's frenzied immigration policy as undocumented immigrants now live in fear of being detained or deported.
"This case, I think, illustrates the folly of that kind of policy," Frosh told Mic. "It takes an enormous amount of courage for a rape victim to step forward and report a rape, and it takes, even more, courage for somebody who might be deported to step forward and report a crime."
"Thankfully, the victim, in this case, was somebody with a great deal of courage, and I think we owe her a debt of gratitude for helping to protect our community against somebody who commits rape and somebody else who attempts to obstruct justice."
Vasiliades, who has been an attorney since 2011, described himself as an "aggressive trial attorney dedicated to client service."
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