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Teen jailed for not aiding her rape case

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A 14-year-old Albuquerque girl was jailed for five days this week because she refused to testify against the stepfather prosecutors say raped her.

The girl failed to show up for a November trial and has been uncooperative with prosecutors, said Todd Heisey, chief deputy district attorney.

Prosecutors say they suspect the stepfather has intimidated her and caused her to recant accusations against him.

The girl was 12 when she was raped, according to the 2005 indictment against Manuel Qui¤onez, 33, of Albuquerque.

By arresting the girl, prosecutors had hoped to get a videotaped deposition from her. But the judge who ordered her jailed was unavailable, and no other judge could hear the case within the five-day limit, officials said.

"She's being released," Heisey said Thursday afternoon. "We can't get a hearing to do the deposition."

Prosecutors wanted a videotaped deposition in case the girl refused to appear at trial again.

The girl was booked into the Juvenile Detention Center on Sunday said Tom Swisstack, center director.

State District Judge J. Michael Kavanaugh ordered the girl jailed on a $10,000 cash-only bond, an unprecedented order in Bernalillo County, Swisstack said.

"I've only been in this business 29 years, and this is the first time I've seen this," he said.

In a motion filed Wednesday, prosecutors claimed her stepfather has "played an integral part in preventing the child from testifying."

Defense attorney Joe Romero Jr. did not return phone calls seeking comment on the case.

The girl ran away from home twice before the Nov. 26 trial and this month reported to 911 that her stepfather "hit her, threatened to return to beat her again and was intoxicated," according to the emergency motion to change the stepfather's conditions of release for violating the order for no contact with the girl.

Having a victim or witness arrested who refuses to cooperate in a felony case "is unusual but certainly not unheard of," Heisey said.

"It's one of the options we have," Heisey said of the warrant that was issued for the girl's arrest. "The intent was really to get her in front of the court and impress her with the seriousness of this matter."

Kavanaugh's order was issued Nov. 26 and demanded that the girl be brought before him "to answer the charge of: material witness for a first-degree felony case involving a sex offense against a child."

When the girl failed to show up for the trial last month, the trial was rescheduled for April.