February 9, 2005: Headlines: COS - Malawi: Crime: Channels Online: Kent Kafatia, the City College security officer originally accused of attacking four different women, returns to court. Friends of Kent, a charity formed by Santa Barbara residents who were former Peace Corps volunteers in Africa, was financing Kafatia’s education.
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Malawi:
Peace Corps Malawi :
The Peace Corps in Malawi:
November 23, 2004: Headlines: COS - Malawi: Crime: Daily Nexus: Kent Kafatia faces two counts of rape and one count of burglary. Friends of Kent, a charity formed by Santa Barbara residents who were former Peace Corps volunteers in Africa, was financing Kafatia’s education. :
February 9, 2005: Headlines: COS - Malawi: Crime: Channels Online: Kent Kafatia, the City College security officer originally accused of attacking four different women, returns to court. Friends of Kent, a charity formed by Santa Barbara residents who were former Peace Corps volunteers in Africa, was financing Kafatia’s education.
Kent Kafatia, the City College security officer originally accused of attacking four different women, returns to court. Friends of Kent, a charity formed by Santa Barbara residents who were former Peace Corps volunteers in Africa, was financing Kafatia’s education.
Kent Kafatia, the City College security officer originally accused of attacking four different women, returns to court. Friends of Kent, a charity formed by Santa Barbara residents who were former Peace Corps volunteers in Africa, was financing Kafatia’s education.
Kafatia going to court
By Marie Albu
Published: Wednesday, February 9, 2005
Article Tools:Email This ArticlePrint This Article Page 1 of 2Next Page
Kent Kafatia, the City College security officer originally accused of attacking four different women, returns to court 8:30 a.m. tomorrow for "readiness and settlement."
"This means the judge wants to know if we can set a trial date. He wants to know if the lawyers are ready," said Senior Deputy District Attorney Joyce Dudley.
Kafatia's attorney, Public Defender Karen Atkins, said, "I believe my client is innocent of what he's accused of for various reasons.
We're anxious to get the trial started as quickly as possible but we also want to be thoroughly prepared. I'm still waiting to get a lot of reports from the police and the District Attorney."
Kafatia remains in County Jail with his bail set at $1 million.
"I'm very unhappy my client is still in custody but he recognizes that we need to be properly prepared," Atkins said.
She also said that she is currently searching the community for character witnesses to "shed some light on the situation."
"I don't think the things my client is accused of fit his character," she said.
Atkins said she wants to begin issuing subpoenas but cannot do so without a trial date. She added there is some question about misidentification. For example, one victim originally identified her attacker as Hispanic. Kafatia is black.
"He was mistakenly identified as the perpetrator of that offense," said Atkins. "It's one of the many reasons I'm confident that he is not the person who did that. He's a male and that's about where it begins and ends."
Kafatia was arrested Nov.14 while on duty as a security officer at City College. He was originally a suspect in two sexual assaults that occurred earlier that morning.
One involved a 20-year-old woman who said a man picked her up in a City College security vehicle and raped her.
The second woman, 51, said she passed out from intoxication and awoke to find a used condom on the floor.
She told police that she believed Kafatia had raped her because he had phoned earlier in the evening to ask to have sex with her.
Police located the campus truck matching the description the first woman gave on campus and arrested Kafatia who was still on duty at the time.
Later, two more women identified Kafatia as their attacker in incidents on Dec. 6, 2003 and Oct. 31, 2004, after seeing him on the news.
On the third day of the pretrial hearing Dec. 9, Judge George Eskin dismissed two counts stemming from the alleged rape reported by the 51-year-old woman.
Dudley said she understands Eskin's position.
"Rape of an intoxicated person is hard to prove in court," she said.
Kafatia will stand trial for three of the four alleged incidents, all of which occurred at City College while he was on duty.
He faces eight of the original 10 charges, including rape, attempted rape, sexual battery, criminal threats and false imprisonment. Kafatia plead not guilty to all charges.
Kafatia had come to City College from Malawi, Africa.
He transferred to UCSB and was spending most nights at the Salvation Army until he was adopted by a group calling themselves the Friends of Kent, who raised $17,000, as of October, for his education and even took him into their homes.
Dudley said that after tomorrow's "readiness and settlement" hearing she will know better when a court date may be set.
When this story was posted in February 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state. |
| WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service. |
| Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress. |
| RPCVs mobilize support for Countries of Service RPCV Groups mobilize to support their Countries of Service. Over 200 RPCVS have already applied to the Crisis Corps to provide Tsunami Recovery aid, RPCVs have written a letter urging President Bush and Congress to aid Democracy in Ukraine, and RPCVs are writing NBC about a recent episode of the "West Wing" and asking them to get their facts right about Turkey. |
| Ask Not As our country prepares for the inauguration of a President, we remember one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century and how his words inspired us. "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." |
| Latest: RPCVs and Peace Corps provide aid Peace Corps made an appeal last week to all Thailand RPCV's to consider serving again through the Crisis Corps and more than 30 RPCVs have responded so far. RPCVs: Read what an RPCV-led NGO is doing about the crisis an how one RPCV is headed for Sri Lanka to help a nation he grew to love. Question: Is Crisis Corps going to send RPCVs to India, Indonesia and nine other countries that need help? |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: Channels Online
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Malawi; Crime
PCOL17281
97
.