A Queens couple was acquitted of charges they’d used their teenaged niece from El Salvador as a sex slave.
Javier Mencias, 38 and his wife Angelica, 57, were found not guilty by a jury for the rape, sexual abuse and child endangerment charges over the 2010 incident involving the then 15-year-old girl.
Prosecutor Marjorie Fisher said the Mencias had lured the girl from El Salvador with “promises of the American dream” – and turned her life into a “nightmare.”
The girl had pleaded for help from a Spanish-speaking pedestrian, claiming she’d been raped three days earlier in the Mencias’ Richmond Hill home by Javier while Angelica watched.
There was no medical evidence to back her claim.
The defense said the now-17-year-old had made up the story in a bid to get a green card and bring her family to the US.
“The implausibility of her story sounded like a telenovela she made up,” said Angelica’s lawyer Ernest Atalay.
“There was a lot of information about her we couldn’t bring out at the trial, but the jury made the right decision and the prosecutor did an excellent job,” said Javier’s attorney Jorge Santos.