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Sex trafficking plea deal unending ‘nightmare’ for Texas mom

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Sex trafficking plea deal unending ‘nightmare’ for Texas mom


SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Irma Reyes’ thoughts raced as her husband drove via the predawn darkness towards a courthouse tons of of miles from dwelling: Don’t they know my daughter issues?

Reyes had been barely capable of eat since she heard that Texas prosecutors deliberate to let the 2 males charged with intercourse trafficking her daughter stroll free. She was going to court docket to attempt to cease them.

Reyes’ daughter was 16 in 2017, when males she knew solely as “Rocky” and “Blue” saved her and one other lady at a San Antonio motel the place males paid to have intercourse with them. Now, the circumstances in opposition to Rakim Sharkey and Elijah Teel — who police recognized because the traffickers — have seen years of delay, a parade of prosecutors, an aborted trial and, in the end, a stark retreat by the federal government.

They’re amongst 1000’s of circumstances underneath a cloud of dysfunction on the workplace of Texas Legal professional Basic Ken Paxton, whose authorized troubles embrace a federal felony investigation. Trafficking circumstances specifically have come underneath scrutiny and solid doubt on how the company, which fights court docket battles affecting individuals far past Texas, makes use of thousands and thousands of state tax {dollars} on a problem that Republican leaders trumpet as a precedence whereas attacking Democrats’ strategy to frame safety.

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A spokeswoman for the lawyer normal’s workplace, Kristen Home, declined to reply questions for this story.

“It’s like a nightmare that I can’t get up from,” Reyes mentioned.

On the courthouse in January, Reyes’ abdomen churned as she considered the deal for the 2 males: 5 years of probation. The unique costs carried potential sentences of a long time in jail.

“You’ll not discover a stronger corroborated case,” mentioned Kirsta Leeburg Melton, who oversaw the lawyer normal’s human trafficking unit till late 2019. “And I’m sick. It’s improper.”

In court docket, Reyes listened because the choose summarized the circumstances’ twists and turns: years misplaced to the pandemic, delays attributable to “turnover within the lawyer normal’s workplace,” days of testimony final 12 months just for a number of individuals to catch COVID-19 and immediate a mistrial.

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She listened in disbelief as the brand new prosecutor advised the choose that Reyes’ daughter was “on the run.” Now 22, the younger girl left dwelling after a combat, Reyes mentioned, however they sustain a gentle stream of textual content messages.

Then, Sharkey and Teel pleaded “no contest” to aggravated promotion of prostitution. The choose, Velia Meza, sentenced the lads to seven years of probation, regardless of prosecutors recommending 5, noting they wouldn’t must register as intercourse offenders.

Reyes considered her daughter as she approached the entrance of the courtroom to make a sufferer’s influence assertion.

The AP is withholding the younger girl’s identify, in step with its coverage to keep away from figuring out victims of sexual assault and different such crimes. Reyes advised AP she spoke about this story together with her daughter, who didn’t wish to remark or be interviewed instantly.

Reyes mentioned that as a lady, her daughter was bullied and would run away from dwelling. By her teenagers, she began utilizing medicine, and in 2017 she was despatched to a rehabilitation middle.

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Courtroom data present it was solely days after Reyes’ daughter and one other lady ran away from rehab that their pictures had been marketed on-line for “dates.” They met “Blue” exterior a motel, the place they couldn’t afford an evening’s keep. He launched them to “Rocky.” The pair rented the women a room, helped arrange conferences with males who’d pay for intercourse, and picked up half the cash, in accordance with the data.

Reyes daughter later testified at trial that police discovered them after she received scared and known as her mother as a result of “Rocky” hit her. Requested to establish “Rocky,” the younger girl pointed throughout the courtroom at Sharkey.

Sharkey’s lawyer, Jason Goss, maintains the jury would have acquitted his consumer however advised AP he had no alternative however to plead no contest to the diminished cost as a result of a sentence of as much as life in jail was too dangerous. Teel’s lawyer, Brian Powers, didn’t reply to requests for remark.

After the choose declared a mistrial final June, Reyes, her daughter and the prosecutor agreed to carry the case once more. However that prosecutor resigned with out rationalization quickly after, amid a wave of seasoned legal professionals quitting the lawyer normal’s workplace over practices they mentioned had been meant to slant authorized work, reward loyalists and drum out dissent.

In October, Reyes was launched to new lead lawyer James Winters — the final of eight prosecutors to deal with the case for the workplace, court docket data present.

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Reyes mentioned her daughter advised Winters she would testify once more. The lawyer sought to have the case postponed however after the choose refused he knowledgeable Reyes of the plea deal. Winters, who referred inquiries to an company spokesperson, resigned after showing in court docket for the deal.

Within the San Antonio courtroom, Reyes addressed the lads who’d simply entered their pleas.

“The trash is meant to be disposed,” she mentioned. “However they’re fortunate at the moment.”

She cried on the best way dwelling. Reyes didn’t know methods to clarify to her daughter and wished the younger girl would come dwelling. She felt remoted and had violent nightmares.

Two days after the listening to, Reyes sat alone in her bed room and thought of taking her personal life. Her ideas grew particular. However then she considered her kids and known as a disaster hotline.

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“I simply swim into my ideas,” she mentioned. “I’ve to bear in mind that I don’t dive too deep.”

Reyes continues to be greedy for closure. She’s filed authorized complaints, though none will reopen the felony case. Maybe her finest hope is a civil lawsuit that she hopes her daughter will in the future be able to carry. They’re speaking extra currently.

A couple of weeks after court docket, Reyes awoke to a name from a sheriff’s deputy who mentioned her daughter had dialed 911 having a panic assault; she mentioned she wished to go dwelling.

I’ve lived this earlier than, Reyes thought. Then she pulled on footwear, climbed into the pickup and drove out into the night time.

____

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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story contains dialogue of suicide. In case you or somebody you realize wants assist, please name the Nationwide Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

____

Related Press photographer Eric Homosexual and videojournalist Lekan Oyekanmi contributed to this report.



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Kinky Friedman, singer and novelist who fronted The Texas Jewboys, dies at 79

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Kinky Friedman, singer and novelist who fronted The Texas Jewboys, dies at 79


Kinky Friedman, the cigar-chomping, mustachioed Texan country singer and mystery novelist whose body of work often seemed like the un-kosher marriage of the Borscht Belt and the Bible Belt, died June 27 from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 79.

As frontman for the flamboyant 1970s country group Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, he was notorious for satirical songs such as “They Don’t Make Jews Like Jesus Anymore,” a raucous sendup of racism, and “Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in Bed,” which poked fun at feminism.

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He could also turn serious, with songs dealing with social issues such as abortion and commercialism. His 1973 song “Ride ’em Jewboy” is a haunting elegy on the Holocaust, recorded by Willie Nelson and sung in concert by Bob Dylan. The lyrics transform cowboy cliches into a rumination on Hitler’s victims:

Now the smoke from camps a-rising

See the helpless creatures on their way

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Hey, old pal, ain’t it surprising

How far you can go before you stay?

Texas Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman addresses supporters during his election night party at Scholz Garten in Austin, Texas, November 7, 2006. (credit: REUTERS/Donald R. Winslow)
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The Jewboys broke up in the mid-1970s and Friedman spent much of the next decade in a haze of drugs. In the mid-1980s he cleaned up and began writing a series of successful, raunchy, comic mystery novels whose main character is himself. He wrote more than 20 books, all on a manual typewriter.

https://youtu.be/uBewkqSdehQ

One reviewer, the actress and author Fannie Flagg, described his writing as “Raymond Chandler on drugs, if Chandler had possessed a tremendous sense of humor.”

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In 2006 he ran for governor of Texas, looking to unseat incumbent Republican Rick Perry in a bid that went from joking to serious. His campaign material included a 13-inch talking action figure and bumper stickers that read, “My governor is a Jewish cowboy.” His official campaign slogan was  “Why the hell not?” He considered himself tough on immigration, pro-choice, anti-capital punishment and a proponent of alternative fuels.

In time, his campaign gathered force as a serious quest to shake up Texas politics, break down traditional party machines and reach out to a dramatically disaffected electorate.

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“In the last election for governor, only 29% of eligible voters went to the polls,” Friedman, known as “the Kinkster,” told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that year. “Seventy-one percent didn’t vote — they didn’t like the choice between paper and plastic.”

In the end, Friedman placed fourth in the six-person race, receiving 12.6% of the vote.

The origins of Kinky Friedman

Born Richard Samet Friedman in Chicago in 1944, he moved with his parents to Texas as a baby and earned his nickname in college from his curly hair. His parents were educators who ran a summer camp for mainly Jewish children at Echo Hill Ranch, the 400-acre spread where Friedman would come to live in a small but rambling lodge.

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“We had services every Friday night, and Kinky would play the guitar,” Ellen St. Clair, who spent four summers at Echo Hill, told JTA in 2006.

The property is also home to the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch, a home and adoption center for abused and abandoned dogs that Friedman helped found.

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He attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he majored in psychology. Friedman proudly recalled that during their time as members of the Jewish Tau Delta Phi fraternity he and a friend, Nathan “Chinga” Chavin, tried to admit African-American students, an effort that was ultimately thwarted.

After graduating in 1966,  he served in the Peace Corps in Borneo. After returning from the Peace Corps, he formed Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, at a time when hybrid “country rock” bands — including The Band, the Eagles and Buffalo Springfield — were rising up the charts. The Jewboys drew a cult following — and occasional protests, as when the National Organization for Women awarded Friedman its “Male Chauvinist Pig Award” in 1973.

In early 1976, he joined Dylan on the second leg of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. Friedman claimed to have been the first “full-blooded” Jew to take the stage at the Grand Ole Opry.

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Friedman would cite Mark Twain and the humorist Will Rogers as his heroes, and the inevitable comparisons were not far off.

“These days,” he once said, “there are many people around the world who listen to the songs that made me infamous and read the books that made me respectable.”





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Texas Football Ranked Among the Top Offenses in the New EA CFB 25 Game

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Texas Football Ranked Among the Top Offenses in the New EA CFB 25 Game


As a part of its rankings week showcase, EA has released its top offenses for the new EA CFB 25 game, with the Texas Longhorns tying for the third-highest-rated squad in this year’s game.

Texas was given a 91-rated offense, tying with Alabama for the third spot. The two teams ahead of the Longhorns and Crimson Tide are Georgia and Oregon, who share the top spot with a 94 overall rating.

Texas looks to feature one of the best offenses in real life in 2024, which will lead to exciting gameplay for the first college football game in over a decade. Just two returning Power Five quarterbacks had more passing yards in 2024 than Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, and he’ll have the privilege of throwing to the transfer portal’s top receiver Isaiah Bond in the upcoming year.

The offensive line is also one of the best in the nation, ranking inside the top five of rankings from sites like On3, PFF, and 247. Behind that line will be runningbacks CJ Baxter and Jaydon Blue, who combined for 1,057 rushing yards on over five yards per carry in 2023. The Texas offense is filled from top to bottom with playmakers, likely making them one of the deepest offenses to play within the game.

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At the quarterback position, Ewers will likely be one of the three highest-rated passers, especially given his status as the cover athlete, and is backed up by Arch Manning, who sadly won’t be in the game due to him opting out. Whether they replace him with an auto-generated player or just leave him out, freshman Trey Owens will be a fine backup in the game.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian greets quarterback Quinn Ewers who threw passes to receivers at Texas Longhorns Football Pro Day a

Head coach Steve Sarkisian greets quarterback Quinn Ewers who threw passes to receivers at Texas Longhorns Football Pro Day at Frank Denius Fields Wednesday March 20, 2024. / Jay Janner/American-Statesman / USA

The running back room not only features Baxter, the No. 1 rusher in the class of 2023, and Blue, but also Tre Wisner, who averaged six yards per carry last year, and the No. 3 running back in the class of 2024, Jerrick Gibson. Baxter will be the highest rated of the group, but the other three rushers will likely be pushing above 95 speed, making them perfect for a simulation football game.

In the receiving core, Bond is joined by two other transfer receivers Matthew Golden and Silas Bolden. Both pass-catchers were rated as four-star or higher transfers, and tight end Amari Niblack was the top tight end transfer in the country. Returning for the Longhorns are sophomore stud wide receivers Johntay Cook, DeAndre Moore, and Ryan Niblett, while five-star freshman Ryan Wingo will bring verticality to the team.

This offense will not only be one of the highest rated but also the most fun teams in the game. With the bountiful playbook of head coach Steve Sarkisian and his love for players with speed, it’ll be hard to slow down an offense like this.



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Texas lt. gov. warns of Biden's border inaction after Jocelyn Nungaray's murder: 'It can happen to you'

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Texas lt. gov. warns of Biden's border inaction after Jocelyn Nungaray's murder: 'It can happen to you'


Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick warned of the deadly consequences of the border crisis, calling out President Biden for failing to “seal the border with Mexico right now” following the brutal murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray.

“If Joe Biden had any compassion at all for this family or the families of Laken Riley or Rachel Morin and others who have been killed… he would secure the border on Thursday, the day of [Nungaray’s] funeral,” Patrick told “America’s Newsroom,” Wednesday. 

“This little girl, she was tortured, she was strangled, and she was thrown in the river like a rag doll,” he continued. “Now I want America to wake up. This can come to your wife, your daughter, your sister, your grandmother. It can happen to you. There are animals roaming this country today because of Joe Biden, and these three women I just named would all be alive today – today – if it weren’t for Joe Biden. The blood is on his hands.”

MIGRANT ARRESTED IN BROAD DAYLIGHT RAPE OF 13-YEAR-OLD IN NEW YORK PARK

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Video image of Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, and image of Jocelyn Nungaray (Houston Police Department; Fox Houston Courtesy of the Nungaray family)

Prosecutors said Tuesday that two illegal immigrants from Venezuela allegedly lured the Houston girl under a bridge where they sexually assaulted her before tying her up and killing her.

Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, have each been charged with capital murder.

“While we’re there, looking at the casket and praying for this family, [Biden] will be letting more animals like the two that allegedly killed her into this country,” Patrick remarked.

The Texas Republican urged former President Trump to confront Biden at Thursday night’s CNN Presidential Debate on the result of his border policies.

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“I would ask President Biden, ‘can you tell me who Rachel Morin is? Can you tell me who Jocelyn is? Can you tell me who Laken Riley is?’ And Joe Biden has a choice. He could either say, ‘Yes, there are three people who should be alive today except for my border policies,’ or, ’I don’t know who they are,’” he said.

Jocelyn’s mother, Alexis Nungaray, tearfully told “Hannity” on Tuesday that “we have to stop burying our kids.” 

“This isn’t right. We have to have more reinforcement when it comes to letting people in. This is not okay,” she said.

Pena Ramos illegally crossed into El Paso, Texas, in May, sources with the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Fox News. He was caught by Border Patrol agents and was released into the U.S. with a Notice to Appear in court. 

Rangel Martinez also crossed illegally into El Paso in March and was caught by Border Patrol. He was released into the U.S. on an unknown basis. 

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Pena Ramos was wearing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) ankle bracelet at the time of the crime – a detail highlighted by Jocelyn’s grandfather, Kelvin Alvarenga, during the “Hannity” interview.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Fox News in a statement Friday that he “illegally entered the U.S. without inspection, parole or admission by a U.S. immigration officer on an unknown date and at an unknown location.” 

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg described the city of Houston as a “huge international hub” that draws in people from all over the country. 

“Unfortunately, we see a great deal of violence committed by illegal immigrants, and we see as many victimized by other illegals and regular people here. It’s an enormous problem. This was bound to happen,” Ogg told Fox News on Tuesday. “It’s one of those things that, as an elected prosecutor, you are just waiting for [the] other shoe to drop. I’m just sick and sickened this little girl was the innocent victim of these two monsters.” 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP 

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Fox News’ Louis Casiano, Bill Melugin, Griff Jenkins, Yael Halon and Greg Norman contributed to this report.



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