Post date: Mar 19, 2013 2:11:11 AM
An ongoing police investigation has found that three women were paid to make videos in which they falsely accused U.S. Senator Bob Menendez of paying them for sex.
SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (MARCH 18, 2013) (CH 5) - Dominican national police said on Monday (March 18) that an on-going investigation has found that three women were paid to make videos in which they falsely accused a U.S. senator from New Jersey of paying them for sex.
Authorities have placed Dominican lawyer Melanio Figueroa at the centre of the case involving Senator Bob Menendez."Melanio Figueroa was the one who contacted another law professional, Miguel Angel Galvan, calling on him to look for three women and make a recording in which they were to use the name "Bob" to - allegedly - be used in a divorce," said National Police spokesman, Colonel Maximo Baez.
According to a police statement, Galvan recruited Nexis de los Santos Santanaand her friends Vanessa Maria Nunez Alcantara and Adalgisa Reyes Cordero to make the videos in a mall in the southeastern city of La Romana.
The original videotaped interview with Nexis de los Santos Santana features her saying that Menendez paid her for sex and that she was cheated out of the full amount he had agreed to pay.
Unsubstantiated reports, first published on the conservative Daily Caller website, alleged that Salomon Melgen, a Dominican-born Florida doctor, provided Menendez with free trips aboard his private plane to the Dominican Republicwhere Menendez allegedly engaged in sex with underage prostitutes.
The Dominican police statement said that police opened an investigation when a prominent Dominican lawyer and friend of Menendez, Vinicio Castillo, presented a formal complaint to the public prosecutor for libel and slander. According to the police, that's when Galvan re-entered the picture.
"Lawyer Galvan went to the prosecutor of La Romana where he presented a writ of amparo, saying that the images that he had helped his friend lawyer Melanio obtain were utilized in a different way from the divorce, which he had originally thought they'd be used for," Baez told reporters.
Baez added that police determined the three women were paid a total of 46,000 pesos ($1,120 US).
"Lawyer Figueroa paid the sum of 17,000 pesos ($413 US) for the service toReyes Cordero Arias and de los Santos Santana arias and 12,000 ($291 US) to Nunez Alcantara."
Police said that the investigation continues. Figueroa has not made any public comments on the case as yet.