Tuesday, January 13, 2009

A little problem....

There are so many things wrong in this story...

According to The Monterey Herald, Marcelino de Jesus Martinez of Greenfield, CA, arranged a marriage between his daughter and a young man. In exchange for the arranged marriage, the young man, Margarito de Jesus Galindo, was to pay Martinez "$16,000,
150 cases of beer, several cases of meat and soda and wine."

In other words, he sold his daughter. Or traded her for goods. Part sold, part bartered, I guess.

His daughter reportedly agreed to the arrangement and went with Galindo without complaint. Unfortunately, she is 14 years old, below the state's age of consent.

Galindo is 18 years old, which could make him guilty of statutory rape and human trafficking.

The whole story came to light because Martinez went to the police when Galindo failed to make the payment. He initially reported that his daughter had run away, but the nature of the arrangement became apparent as police looked into the matter.


"'We were working on this one kind of backward. We hear about these things all the time, but they are kind of tough to investigate or prove,' (Greenfield police chief Joe) Grebmeier said today."


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