Paid for Marriage, Rape Suspect Says
A Long Beach postal clerk accused of raping a 10-year-old girl testified at his trial that he paid $9,000 to solidify an agreement to marry the girl in the future, but denied that he sexually assaulted her.
“I pray to the God, if I do that (rape the girl), please kill me,” the defendant Tom Yang, 33, testified through a translator this week in a trial before Superior Court Judge Sheila F. Pokras.
Yang said that during an April 11 conversation he offered $5,000 to the girl’s family for a promise of marriage when the girl turned 18. He said he scraped together $9,000 to give to the family after the girl’s mother allegedly asked for twice the original offer.
The girl’s mother has said she accepted some money in exchange for the promise of marriage, as is customary in their home country of Laos, but she changed her mind and returned the money to Yang, who had rented a room in the family’s home.
Police said they found $8,900 in cash in a laundry basket at the family’s home after the alleged rape was reported by school officials. The incident allegedly took place April 15.
The girl now says that she was not raped, but prosecutors are still pressing their case against Yang.
Yang remains in Los Angeles County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bail. He could receive up to eight years in prison if convicted.
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