Victims decline to testify, rape suspects go free

The victims in two separate cases of rape in the Supreme Court have requested no further action against their accused assailants. The first case involves thirty-four year old Aris Cacho. It is alleged by a sixteen year old girl that on October twenty-seventh, 2005, she was at the same premises as Cacho, when he held a knife to her throat and raped her. But today in court, Prosecutor Tracy Sosa entered a nolle presequi motion after the now seventeen year old girl decided she did not want to pursue the matter. With that, Justice Adolph Lucas had no choice but to declare Cacho a free man. Should the situation change Cacho could be brought back to face prosecution.

The second trial featured forty-eight year old Hilberto Perez, accused of raping his ex-common-law wife in August 2006. According to the forty-one year old victim, Perez forced her to drive him to his house at mile two and a half on the Northern Highway and raped her. This morning when the victim took the witness stand, she told Justice Lucas she did not want to proceed and as a result, the defendant was acquitted. Perez, however, may not get very far, as court reports reveal that he still faces a pending molestation charge. Just last month he was accused of fondling a ten year old girl. We understand that the mother of the child tried to get the charges dropped, but Chief Magistrate Herbert Lord denied the request. Perez is to reappear in court on November tenth.