The Variety is withholding the names of the defendants as the victim is their relative.
The 28-year-old man is being held on charges of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, sexual assault in the first degree, and assault and battery.
The 49-year-old parent is being held on charges of child neglect.
Superior Court Judge Kenneth L. Govendo imposed a $50,000 cash bail on the man, and a $25,000 cash bail on the defendant’s mother.
Both defendants were remanded to the custody of the Department of Corrections after their initial appearance and bail hearing yesterday.
Assistant Attorney General Shelli Neal represented the government while Assistant Public Defender Matthew Meyer was appointed as the defendants’ counsel.
Officer Joann A. Pangelinan told the court the victim’s mother filed a complaint with the Tinian Department of Public Safety on March 29, 2011.
The victim told police she moved to Tinian in the summer of 2009, and stayed at her auntie’s house.
The victim, then 14 years old, showed the defendant’s mother her straight “A” grades, and before classes started last year, the defendant’s mother brought the victim a mobile phone.
The defendant started to send text messages to the victim, stating among other things that he loved her.
The victim responded that they were first cousins.
The victim showed the text messages to the defendant’s sister who told the victim to ignore him because maybe he was “just drunk.”
The victim showed the text messages to the defendant’s mother who responded that “she did not want to hear her [b.s.].”
The victim said the defendant sexually abused her sometime in October 2010.
The next day, the victim stayed all day in her room crying, and told her auntie what the defendant did to her.
The defendant’s mother told the victim “to stop lying.”
Several months after, the victim asked her auntie to get her checked at the hospital, only to be told by her auntie that she was just gaining weight.
The victim decided to buy a pregnancy test kit and learned that she was pregnant.
The victim gave birth last June, police said.
The victim gave police a copy of her conversation with the defendant’s mother on Facebook. The defendant’s mother told the victim “to leave her son alone.”
