Yet another illegal alien has been arrested for multiple sex crimes against a child.
Cops in Annapolis busted Jose Mellecio Argueta, a 44-year-old church van driver, for molesting a girl almost 20 times.
Argueta, a Salvadoran wrongly described as a “Glen Burnie man,” won’t likely get out on bail, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have issued a detainer for cops to hold him.
Yet the crimes with which the illegal alien are charged invite the obvious observation that if he had not been in the country, he would not have molested the girl.
Church Van Provided Access
Argueta had access to the girl because she was a passenger on his van, cops said.
Sergeant Amy Miguez of the Annapolis Police Department told ABC affiliate WMAR that the “suspect drove the church van that transported the victim and her family to their church in Glen Burnie and that’s how she first met him.”
But Argueta, Miguez said, went beyond merely giving the girl a ride to church. Reading the Bible and singing hymns aren’t what Argueta had in mind.
Police say on four separate occasions over a two-week period Argueta had the young teen slip outside her home on Juliana Circle in Annapolis and molested her.
While the suspect stopped short of raping her, he now faces 19 separate counts ranging from sex offenses and assaults to perverted practice and child porn.
“It was obvious that there was a lot of information confirming that this had happened and also photographs unfortunately — pornographic images of this child,” said Miguez.
Argueta molested the girl, court records say, from December 19 through January 3.
And cops found “evidence that Argueta may have abused the same victim in Howard County and in the nation’s capital” WMAR reported. “Police in those jurisdictions have launched their own investigations into those allegations.”
Miguez also said Argueta began texting the girl, and found “pornographic pictures” of her on his phone, radio station WTOP reported. CBS affiliate WJZ reported that Argueta called the girl, a co-worker’s daughter, “Mi Amor” in the texts, and recorded the molestation on his phone.
Howard County borders Anne Arundel, where the “Glen Burnie man” was arrested.
As well, WMAR reported, cops are checking with the church, which remains unidentified, to see if Argueta might be charged with abusing other children.
“When someone is in a position where they have contact with people, with kids in this way and they’ve been accused of a crime like this, that’s something we’re always concerned about,” Miguez told the station.
The Charges and the Detainer
The 19 charges against Argueta include seven felonies and 12 misdemeanors.
The felonies are four third-degree sex offenses and three child porn charges, including one for promotion and distribution child porn and one for video-recording a child in a sex act.
The misdemeanors are:
• four second-degree assaults;
• four sex offenses in the fourth degree, sexual contact;
• three perverted practices; and
• one possession of child porn
In a statement to WBAL, Immigration and Customs Enforcement divulged Argueta’s alias, Jose Angel Mendez, and said local authorities have an ICE detainer to keep the molestation suspect behind bars.
Argueta’s past includes multiple driving infractions, which are common among illegal aliens.
Sanctuary Montgomery County, just outside Washington, D.C., let Argueta skate free with no punishment after a cop caught him driving on a suspended license, court records show. Maryland issues licenses to illegals, hoping that miscreants who openly violate federal law won’t trespass state laws while behind the wheel.
Montgomery County is a particularly safe hideout for illegal-alien thugs and sex fiends, as The New American has reported, citing the work of the city’s WJLA.
Unresolved Questions
The questions news reports left unanswered include how long the Salvadoran has been in the country, and why the church hired him.
WJZ reported that Argueta has been in Maryland 13 years, and lived at his current address for the last eight. But how did he enter the country unlawfully, when did he get here, and did he find refuge with leftist sanctuary subversives who harbored him, a federal crime?
The church will eventually be identified, of course, but the answer to that question should include who hired Argueta, and if that individual knew or cared that Argueta was an illegal Salvadoran.
H/T: Conservative Review
Image: benjaminec via iStock / Getty Images Plus
R. Cort Kirkwood is a long-time contributor to The New American and a former newspaper editor
