A Queens couple made life a living hell for their 15-year-old niece — duping her into leaving El Salvador for a better life in America, only to have the husband rape and try to impregnate her so she’d bear a child for them, prosecutors charge.
The twisted forced-surrogacy plot, which was allegedly sanctioned by her flesh-and-blood aunt, began almost as soon as the child set foot in the US.
After just a day in her new Richmond Hill home two years ago, the eager teenager, excited about her new American home, was allegedly plied with alcohol and molested by her boorish uncle, while her aunt — her supposed savior and benefactor — callously watched.
“They acted together as a sexual assault team and turned their niece’s life into a living hell,” Assistant District Attorney Marjorie Fisher said last week in her opening statement of the couple’s rape and child endangerment trial, which resumes today.
Fisher said the teen’s 55-year-old aunt, Angelica Mencias, went to El Salvador to celebrate the girl’s Quinceanera, a Latin American 15th birthday celebration, and “propositioned” the teen to get pregnant by her 36-year-old husband Javier.
The girl smartly refused.
The twisted aunt allegedly brushed off the earlier request as a “joke” and offered to pay for her to come to America for a better education and employment.
She agreed.
After a two-week detainment in a government shelter, Angelica and Javier Mencias brought the girl to their Richmond Hill home in August 2010, Fisher said.
Hours later, the pair pounced, serving the girl alcoholic drinks until she passed out. When the teen woke up she was being molested by Javier while Angelica was watching, according to a criminal complaint.
The couple allegedly told the young girl that New York City was a dangerous place, and so not to go anywhere without them. She spoke no English.
“On Aug 24, with no one to turn to, she heard a woman speaking Spanish outside the house, ran out and told the stranger, ‘My aunt is making me have sex with my uncle, can you help me?” Fisher told jurors.
“She was crying and desperate,” said Ivelissa Luna, 42, who was walking her dog when the girl sprinted outside. “I called the police immediately.”
After Detective James Ropenus convinced her to complete a rape kit, he saw her become a different person.
“At first she seemed calm, then she became tense,” Ropenus said, according to the complaint. “Her demeanor changed from cooperative to confused and angry.”
Ropenus then issued a warrant for Javier’s arrest and apprehended Angelica outside of Jamaica Hospital.
Javier’s attorney, Jorge Santos asked jurors to “keep an open mind” and to “listen to the evidence.”
Angelica’s attorney Ernest Atalay said “there is no medical evidence of the rape.”
Fisher said the girl, who is now 17, was diagnosed with depression and admitted to a psychiatric ward after the alleged rape. She was subsequently placed into foster care.