|
| The five men who were wrongly accused and convicted of a
| brutal New York City assault in 1989, now known as the
| "Central Park 5," on Monday sued former President Donald
| Trump for defamation after he once again asserted they were
| responsible for the crime and falsely claimed a victim had
| died during a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris last
| month.
| ...
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2024/10/21/central-park-5-sue-trump-for-defamation-after-he-again-blamed-them-for-crime-during-presidential-debate/>

--bks

https://wwmt.com/resources/media2/16x9/full/768/center/80/ea236d6a-369b-4972-96c5-3c6b92d6b3ff-medium16x9_QuinnJamesinCourt.PNG
Probable cause hearing held for 2014 rape case against Quinn James. (File - WWMT)

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The first woman to accuse Quinn James of rape appeared in court on Friday for a hearing.

She met James when she was 17-years-old, walking home from Ottawa Hills High School, now 22-years-old, the woman was in a Kent County District courtroom Friday, to face her accused rapist, detailing disturbing details from the case that dates to 2014.

“He strangled me,” said the woman, whose identity Newschannel 3 is not releasing.

The second teenage girl to accuse James of rape, Mujey Dumbuya, was found dead in a wooded area in Kalamazoo on Jan. 28, days after a trial date was set for her rape case against James.

Several sources say James, 42, is a person of interest in the murder of the Dumbuya. A student East Kentwood High School student, where James was a maintenance worker, Dumbuya was 16-years-old when she was killed.

The first of at least three women to accuse James of rape, the alleged victim from 2014 said, “I was forcibly put into a bedroom so I wouldn't be able to escape.”

On Friday, testifying during a probable cause hearing regarding the 2014 rape allegation, the woman said James threated to kill her if she went to police.

“He told me that he was going to wrap me up in a blanket and that he was going to call his buddy and that he was going to pour bleach on me,” she said.

The woman told the court James drove up alongside her while she was walking home from school when she was 17-years-old.

Over the course of the next year, she said, James bought her dinner, manicures, shoes, and clothing.

She told the court she considered him a friend, never a boyfriend, and that the two had never kissed.

In June of 2014, the woman said James picked her up and drove her to his apartment where he offered her $2,000 for sex. The woman said this was the first time she had been to his apartment.

“I got up to walk out the door and he grabbed me and he choked me,” the woman said.

With two hands around her neck, the woman said, she took off her clothes and James forced her into his bedroom.

“I couldn't breathe and I thought he was going to kill me if I didn't,” she said.

When the alleged assault was over, the woman said James got emotional and apologized for what had happened.

"I thought if I panicked he'd kill me," she said.

Without a car and her phone out of reach, the woman said she told James she was hungry and asked if he would take her to get food.

Locked in a stall inside the bathroom at Applebee’s, the then 17-year-old called police. She told the judge that James went into the women’s bathroom and told her that if she was on the phone with police to give him enough time to get away, James left before police arrived.

She was taken to the hospital that night where a rape kit was performed. The nurse who evaluated the woman, also called to testify Friday, said that the findings of that exam were “consistent” with the teenager’s history and claims.

At several points during her testimony, James was seen smirking and shaking his head from his seat behind the defense table. In handcuffs, he flipped through evidence photos and made notes to Jonathan Schildgen, his defense attorney.

Schildgen, a public defender, asked the alleged rape victim, “How did he insert his penis in you if he's holding both your hands above your head?”

He picked apart the woman’s statements given to police back in 2014 and the timeline of events from that June evening.

“The woman is saying he raped her I'm allowed to question that,” Schildgen said.

Schildgen called the case a “charade” and said the only reason 2014 case is only moving forward is so that James is locked up while police investigate Dumbuya’s murder.

“They didn't believe her then; they don't believe her now. Mr. James is being held I would argue in some ways illegally while they investigate him for some other crime, on some other day in some other place,” Schildgen said.

The Kent County Prosecutor's Office did not take the case until the day after Dumbuya was positively identified as the murder victim found in Kalamazoo in late January.

James is now in custody on a $500,000 bond facing criminal sexual conduct charges.

He was arrested in the Dumbuya rape case, but had been released on a $100,000 bond at the time of Dumbuya's death.

https://wwmt.com/news/local/probable-cause-hearing-held-for-2014-rape-case-against-quinn-james/