Twelve year old rape victim sent to Florida while this Director of Family Services for the largest Latino Social Services agency in the area gets widespread support and sympathy. Defense focuses on character of the accused and attacking the victim's character.
[Note: I know several of this man's defenders (but not the man) personally and it wasn't pretty.]
Latinos show support for rape defendant
Billy Ayala’s accuser is 12-year-old girl
By Jay Whearley Telegram & Gazette Staff and Matthew Stone CORRESPONDENT
jwhearley@telegram.com
WORCESTER— While a court of law has yet to rule on the case, the court of public opinion among a sizable segment of the city’s Latino community already has weighed in heavily in support of a man accused of raping a 12-year-old girl, some even proclaiming his innocence.
Billy Ayala, until recently director of family services and interim director of Centro Las Americas’ community service and economic development programs, was arrested June 6 and charged with rape of a child with force and indecent assault and battery on a child. He maintained his innocence in a court appearance and was released from custody the next day on $5,000 cash bail, which was posted by Carmen “Dolly” Vazquez, Centro’s program director for arts and culture.
There is “overwhelming support in the Latino community” for Mr. Ayala, Ms. Vazquez said in a recent interview. “This has made me realize how easy it is to accuse someone else with no evidence.”
Not everyone, however, is quick to discount the case against the defendant.
Capt. Edward J. McGinn Jr., commander of the Worcester Police Department’s Detective Bureau, bristled at any suggestion police proceeded improperly with the case.
“We have a very viable witness here,” he said of the young girl who told investigators she was raped by Mr. Ayala.
The captain said he cannot discuss specifics of a pending criminal investigation, but offered an outline of the procedures followed when a child may have been the victim of a sexual crime.
As much initial investigative work as possible is undertaken to corroborate the youngster’s allegations, he said, including submitting evidence for forensic review. Once satisfied there is cause to continue the investigation, the child is interviewed by a trained interrogator with the session monitored from outside the room by detectives, social workers, a prosecutor and others.
Those steps were taken in Mr. Ayala’s case, Capt. McGinn said.
“These decisions (filing criminal charges) aren’t made in a vacuum,” the captain emphasized. “There was no agenda here … no rush or pressure to pursue” this case.
Sgt. John W. Lewis of the department’s Special Crimes Division added, “We have a victim here and I hope people understand that. We don’t take out charges without probable cause.
“For anyone to try to undermine this victim is shameful.”
Helping generate support for Mr. Ayala, 34, was an interview with Juan A. Gomez, executive director of Centro Las Americas, that appeared in the June 28-July 4 issue of El Planeta, a local Spanish-language newspaper, and an interview with Mr. Ayala that aired recently on WORC-AM, a Spanish-language radio station in Worcester.
The news story, with the translated headline “Accusations are a product of envy,” quotes Mr. Gomez as saying he considers the charges against Mr. Ayala to be an act of malice and envy that has nothing to do with reality.
Mr. Gomez also states in the story that because of his involvement with Centro and the Latino community, he needs to remain neutral in the situation, but has faith that Mr. Ayala will be exonerated.
The Centro director did not return a phone call last week from a Telegram & Gazette reporter seeking comment.
The radio station interview with Mr. Ayala, which aired last month, took a similar tone, according to several who heard it. A station official told the Telegram & Gazette that no tape was made of the interview and that the radio station employee who questioned Mr. Ayala would not be available to speak to a reporter.
Also supporting Mr. Ayala is Samuel Rosario, a member of the Centro board of directors and a candidate for the District 1 City Council seat.
In an interview earlier this month for a story about financial problems at the social services agency, Mr. Rosario said that a malicious in-law of Mr. Ayala was behind the accusations, adding that he and others fully expect the defendant to be cleared in court.
The in-law he referred to is Frances Rivera, mother of the alleged victim, whose oldest daughter is married to Mr. Ayala.
She said she has told police that her 12-year-old daughter, over the girl’s objections, had gone to spend the night of June 2, a Saturday, with the Ayalas at their home on Florence Street. She said the girl returned home the next evening, extremely agitated, frequently scratching herself and taking at least five baths that night.
Mrs. Rivera said the girl would not speak to her that night or the next day, when there were no classes at her school. The mother said she kept pressing her daughter for an explanation and, finally, that Tuesday morning, the 12-year-old quickly told her that Mr. Ayala had come into the bedroom she was staying in Saturday night and began stroking her head, then raped her. The girl said she passed out and later woke up, wearing no clothing, on top of the defendant.
After telling her story, Mrs. Rivera said, the girl then ran out of their apartment in the Great Brook Valley housing complex and headed toward the elementary school she attends.
Mrs. Rivera said the girl’s words shook her terribly because as a youngster she had been molested by a relative in her native Puerto Rico, then abused by a man she had lived with in New York. The experiences, she said, are largely responsible for the severe depression she suffers, which requires prescription medication.
The mother said she kept thinking about what her daughter had told her and within 20 minutes went to the girl’s elementary school to elicit more information. When she arrived at the school, Mrs. Rivera said she was met by the principal who told her that the girl had broken down after she arrived and related an account of the alleged rape, and that police now were inside the school questioning her daughter.
Mrs. Rivera, who became extremely emotional discussing the situation in three separate interviews with reporters over the past two weeks, insists she had no ill-will toward her son-in-law prior to hearing her daughter’s story. “He (Mr. Ayala) bought her pretty dresses,” she said. “He helped our family.”
She said the girl told her and police that the defendant had fondled her and been extremely attentive toward her over the past 18 months. The time frame, Mrs. Rivera said, coincided with marked changes in the girl’s behavior.
The mother said the girl went from being a top student to one with low grades, little interest in school and frequent behavioral problems.
It was the allegations of molestation during the 18 months prior to the alleged rape that led to the charge of indecent assault and battery against Mr. Ayala, according to police.
The case, Mrs. Rivera said, has created a backlash directed against herself and her family that finally compelled her to send her daughter to Florida to stay with relatives. She and other members of her immediate family frequently have been harassed by friends and other family members who support Mr. Ayala. It reached a head last month when she was evicted from her apartment in Great Brook Valley, due in part, she believes, to the charges leveled against Mr. Ayala.
Continued
MA: Accused Child Rapist gains community support
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