Latest news with #Assault
Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Miami Herald
Quick-thinking woman and DNA solve cold case sexual assault, NM officials say
A man accused of sexually assaulting a woman more than a decade ago has been convicted, New Mexico prosecutors said. Omar Navarro-Flores was convicted in the 2014 cold case sexual assault of a woman, the Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office said in a May 30 Facebook post. Navarro-Flores pleaded not guilty at his June 2019 arraignment, court documents show. In a June 2 email to McClatchy News, Assistant Public Defender Graham Dumas, Navarro-Flores' attorney, noted that his client's conviction came during a retrial 'after he was acquitted in November of a number of very serious offenses.' 'The Defense stand by our argument that he was denied a fair trial by the incredibly poor police investigation into the case. The police, who allowed this case to lie dormant for five years, did not even try to locate critical witnesses or surveillance footage from the street corner where Mr. Navarro-Flores first allegedly encountered (the woman),' Dumas said. 'By the time this case was indicted in 2019, no amount of defense investigation could address that issue.' As a woman was walking to a bus stop May 6, 2014, a man grabbed her and 'threw her in his car,' prosecutors said. The man drove around Albuquerque with the woman, threatening 'she would never see her children again,' prosecutors said. He sexually assaulted and physically attacked her, 'hitting her head against the steering wheel, and slapping her,' according to prosecutors. During the alleged attack, the woman managed to write down the man's license plate number on her wrist, prosecutors said. After being dropped off at the State Fairgrounds area, the woman contacted security, who 'called police and an ambulance,' prosecutors said. The woman gave police the license plate number from her wrist, prosecutors said. Days later, officers pulled Navarro-Flores over, then 'his car was towed and searched,' prosecutors said. DNA ultimately linked Navarro-Flores to the alleged sexual assault, according to prosecutors. He was arrested in June 2019, court records show. On May 30, a jury found Navarro-Flores guilty of criminal sexual contact and false imprisonment, prosecutors said. 'We will continue to fight for Mr. Navarro-Flores at sentencing, and on appeal if he so chooses,' Dumas said. Navarro-Flores' conviction comes after the city of Albuquerque established a project to test a backlog of rape kits per the direction of Mayor Tim Keller's 2018 executive order, the city says on its website. 'The implementation of The Sexual Assault Evidence Kit Backlog Reduction Project is the first step to correcting oversights and changing the course of action for the future,' the website says. Between 2017 and 2020, more than 4,500 backlogged sexual assault evidence kits were tested, data on the city's website shows. 'As part of a coordinated effort to address Albuquerque's backlog of untested, Sexual Assault Kit cases,' the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative was also formed, according to the district attorney's website. 'The SAKI Team, a dedicated group of attorneys, investigators and victim advocates, is tasked with reviewing, testing and prosecuting rape kit backlog cases and working with victims to build cases and provide them with supportive services and resources,' the website says. The district attorney's office SAKI unit, which has had 24 cold case rape convictions in two years, prosecuted Navarro-Flores' case, prosecutors said.
NBC News
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Live updates: Kid Cudi expected to testify in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex-trafficking trial
What to know about the sex-trafficking trial Combs' former assistant George Kaplan briefly testified yesterday and will return to the witness stand today. Kaplan described the demanding job of being Combs' bag man and cleaning up liquor bottles and baby oil from hotel rooms. Rapper Kid Cudi was slated to take the stand yesterday, but his appearance has been postponed until today. Cudi is expected to testify about his relationship with Cassie Ventura. Combs faces five criminal counts: one count of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs has vociferously denied the allegations against him. This live briefing may include graphic descriptions of sexual violence. For resources on sexual assault, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline. Sign up for the ' Diddy on Trial ' newsletter for key developments and analysis, and listen to Dateline's nightly podcast.
NBC News
19-05-2025
- NBC News
Sean ‘Diddy' Combs trial live updates: Dawn Richard testifies about drug use, guns and Cassie Ventura beatings
Where the sex trafficking trial stands Former Danity Kane member Dawn Richard returned to the stand today. She testified last week that she witnessed Sean 'Diddy' Combs attack his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, with a skillet filled with eggs. The defense tried to undermine her credibility today by highlighting inconsistencies with her statements and her attempts to continue working with Combs despite the alleged violence she witnessed. Richard sued Combs last year, alleging the rap mogul groped, assaulted and imprisoned her, and threatened her life when she tried to intervene in defense of Ventura. Combs' attorney said the mogul was 'shocked and disappointed' by Richard's lawsuit. Ventura's former best friend, Kerry Morgan, also took the stand today. She described multiple instances where she says she saw Combs physically abuse Ventura. Morgan also testified that Ventura was jealous of Combs' ex-girlfriend Kim Porter and that Combs was jealous of Ventura's relationship with actor Michael B. Jordan. Combs faces five criminal counts: one count of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs has vociferously denied the allegations against him. This live briefing may include graphic descriptions of sexual violence. For resources on sexual assault, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline. Sign up for the ' Diddy on Trial ' newsletter for key developments and analysis, and listen to Dateline's nightly podcast. Morgan says Cassie was not supportive after Combs allegedly beat her with a wooden hanger Adam Reiss and David K. Li Kerry Morgan said she hasn't spoken to Cassie Ventura in seven years after Ventura allegedly failed to take her friend's side after an alleged altercation with Combs. The witness recalled an incident when the three of them were at Ventura's apartment in 2018 when, Morgan claims, Combs grabbed her by the neck and hit her with a wooden hangar. "The reason I stopped speaking to her was because she was not supportive of me after that incident. I draw my line at physical abuse," Morgan said under cross-exanination. Even though Ventura eventually left Combs, married personal trainer Alex Fine and is about to have their third child together, Morgan said the relationship remains broken. The witness said she received $30,000 to keep quiet. "She said it was through him, the money wasn't coming from her. She was the go between," Morgan said. "I did not demand money from anyone. She offered money to close the case on it so I don't sue anybody or say anything public about it," Morgan said. "All I got was $30,000." Combs was jealous of Cassie's time with Michael B. Jordan, Morgan says While Cassie Ventura may have been jealous of Kim Porter, her former friend says that Combs was also jealous of Cassie's time with actor Michael B. Jordan. Ventura told the court last week that she and Combs had broken up while she was in South Africa for a few weeks filming a movie, and during that time he suspected she was having an affair with Jordan. Kerry Morgan said much of the same under cross-examination today. "What I remember was that she was speaking to Michael B. Jordan and they hung out together," Morgan said. "And he was jealous of it." Cassie was jealous of Kim Porter, Morgan says Adam Reiss and David K. Li Cassie Ventura was jealous of Kim Porter, Combs' ex-girlfriend and mother to three of his children, according to Kerry Morgan. Defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo asked Morgan if Cassie was ever jealous of Porter, who died in 2018. "I'm sure," Morgan said. "Yes, she was jealous because she could never go to New Year's Eve parties." Porter was the mother to Combs' children Christian and twin daughters Jessie and D'Lila. Share Court adjourns for lunch break later than planned Judge Arun Subramanian adjourned the court for a 30-minute lunch around 12:35 p.m. ET, slightly later than planned. Subramanian told attorneys that he hoped to adjourn for lunch at noon now that the court will adjourn at 3 p.m. ET every day. Share Combs gave Morgan a concussion in alleged wooden hanger assault and paid her off, she says Adam Reiss and Doha Madani Kerry Morgan recounted the alleged assault she personally endured from Combs that ended her almost two decades of friendship with Cassie Ventura. She testified that she was at Ventura's house listening to music when Combs came into the singer's apartment. Cassie was in the bathroom and Morgan said she was in the living room at the time. "He came up behind me and choked me and left finger marks on my neck and hit me in the head with a wooden hanger," Morgan told the court. "Cassie was in the bathroom. It hit me behind my right ear." Morgan added that Combs was talking about Cassie cheating on him and she grabbed her personal things and left. She said she went to an urgent care for a concussion, noting that she was dizzy and "vomited a few times." She hired a lawyer but did not file a lawsuit, Morgan said, instead being paid $30,000 from Combs and saying that she signed an NDA. "We haven't spoken since," Morgan said. "The last time I spoke to Sean was the night of the assault and the last time I saw Cassie was when I signed the NDA." Cassie didn't feel she could leave Combs 'because of her job,' Morgan says Kerry Morgan testified that though she urged Cassie Ventura to speak to police about Combs' abuse, she refused due to what it would mean for her career and her livelihood. Prosecutor Meredith Foster asked Morgan whether she had ever spoken with Cassie about if she should stay with Combs. Morgan told the court she and her former best friend would speak about it often. "I wanted her to do what she wanted to do, but I told her she should leave him," Morgan said. "And she said she could not, because of her job, her car, her apartment." It was apparent to Morgan that after Ventura spent time with people associated with Combs, "she did not want to leave him." Earlier in her testimony, Morgan said that Cassie was frustrated that Combs was in charge of her career but never said why he was preventing her from releasing new albums. Morgan recalls multiple acts of violence by Combs against Cassie Kerry Morgan described multiple incidents of Combs allegedly flying off the handle and beating Cassie Ventura with seemingly no provocation. Morgan first detailed an incident when she and Ventura were vacationing in Jamaica and Combs arrived halfway through their trip. "Cassie had gone to the bathroom and after a few minutes Sean said she was taking too long, and he left me and then I heard her screaming," the witness testified. "It was guttural, terrifying. I heard her screaming so I went to the long hallway, they were coming out of the master bedroom and he was dragging her by her hair." Combs then dragged Ventura outside and threw her to the ground, where she hit her head on brick, Morgan said. Ventura and Morgan then fled the scene in a golf cart and hid in a ditch as Combs searched for them in another golf cart for hours, Morgan testified. Show more Combs had mood swings and 'could be very aggressive,' Morgan testifies Kerry Morgan told the court that she got to know Combs "very well" in the roughly 11 years that he was dating her former best friend. She described him as someone who was sometimes very nice and generous, but also as someone who had mood swings and "could be very aggressive." Morgan testified that Combs would get mad at Cassie and that Cassie "lost her spark" and confidence while with Combs. When asked whether Combs ever spoke down to Cassie, Morgan said it could be "often" and could be regarding her looks or her behavior. Morgan also told the court that Combs would sometimes call her up to "50 times in a row" to look for Cassie. Morgan testified that she personally witnessed Combs assault Cassie two times, once in Jamaica and once in Los Angeles. 'I moved on': Cassie's former best friend says she didn't want to testify Adam Reiss and Doha Madani Kerry Morgan made it clear that she was only in court testifying because she was issued a subpoena by the government. "I do not want to testify," Morgan said when asked why she was there. "I moved on with my life." Morgan also confirmed that she and Cassie Ventura, who met on a modeling shoot as teenagers, no longer speak because Ventura's "boyfriend" assaulted her. Kerry Morgan, Cassie's former best friend, takes the stand Kerry Morgan, the woman Cassie Ventura described as her former best friend, was called to the witness stand by the government once Dawn Richard's testimony was concluded. Ventura testified last week that she met Morgan when she was a teenager and the two remained close for about 17 years. Combs' former girlfriend testified that their friendship ended after Combs allegedly hit Morgan in the head with a wooden hanger. But Morgan was allegedly aware of the abuse Cassie endured from Combs and had been around the couple regularly in the early days of their relationship when Cassie still lived in New York City. Despite Combs' death threats, Richard admits to trying to work with him again Adam Reiss and David K. Li Under another round of cross-examination, Richard admitted she tried to work with Combs again despite all her allegations that the music mogul engaged in violence and drug use. The defense lawyer, Westmoreland, ticked off the number of performances, writing sessions, travel and career talks Richard would have to engage in with Combs despite the bad acts she had allegedly seen. Westmoreland asked, "You would spend a lot of time together even though he made death threats?" Richard responded, "Yes." When pressed about her lawsuit against Combs, Richard said: "I want justice and to be made whole." And when Westmoreland asked if that meant being paid money, Richard answered, "Yes." Richard says she repressed memories of Combs due to trauma Federal prosecutor Mitzi Steiner picked up questioning Richard following a tough cross-examination, where defense attorneys attempted to undermine Richard's testimony by pointing out inconsistencies in her retelling of events. Steiner asked whether Richard had thought about the incidents a lot over the decades since she witnessed them. "No, it was a hard time, a bad time for me," Richard said. "It did not all come back immediately ... the environment was traumatizing, so I tried to erase those things from my memory." By speaking with investigators, Richard said that more memories come to her every day and that she tries to relay things "as best and accurate as I can." She confirmed that she did tell the government that she saw Combs hitting Cassie and that he threatened her to keep quiet during several meetings. Richard testified that she had "no doubt" that Combs tried to strike Cassie, or that Cassie went into a fetal position, or that Combs dragged Cassie by the stairs by her hair. She also had "no doubt" that Combs threatened Richard to keep quiet. Richard felt that Combs derailed her career twice Richard's cross-examination moved into her career with Combs, which included her work with Danity Kane and Comb's trio, Diddy-Dirty Money. The singer confirmed that though she said she was scared of Combs, she asked to work with him again. Westmoreland brought up the hundreds of thousands of records Richard sold while with both groups. Richard confirmed that she asked Combs to sign her as a solo artist in 2011, which would have been the end of her time with Diddy-Dirty Money, and Combs denied her. She also said she asked to work with Combs as recently as about 2020 or 2021. "You felt like Mr. Combs ruined your career not once, but twice?" Westmoreland asked. "Yes," Richard said. Richard didn't immediately tell government about guns, admits she changed her story about drugs Adam Reiss and David K. Li The defense challenged Richard's testimony about weapons and narcotics she allegedly saw in Combs' possession, inferring that her memories only recently came to light. Under direct examination earlier on Monday, Richard detailed the times she saw Combs with guns and illegal drugs. Westmoreland asked Richard why the witness didn't mention guns in eight meetings with prosecutors, and she said, "It wasn't asked." Also under direct examination on Monday, Richard said she saw Combs taking ketamine, cocaine and molly. Westmoreland asked Richard if she's changed her story after previously telling government investigators she hadn't seen Combs with cocaine. "Yes, as time progresses, I get better at knowing what went on because it was quite a long time ago," the witness said. Defense pushes back on Richard's saying Combs threatened her with 'people go missing' Adam Reiss and Doha Madani Combs' defense is attempting to catch inconsistencies in Richard's direct testimony, this time with the allegation that Combs said to her that "people go missing" and that they could die after witnessing a fight between him and Cassie Ventura. Westmoreland pulled up interviews Richard had with prosecutors in October and March, where she also recounted the same incident with a skillet. Westmoreland pointed out Richard said in the interview that Combs said "this was a love thing," with no mention of "people going missing" in her interview. "That's not true, I don't recall not saying that," Richard responded. "You didn't tell prosecutors that Sean Combs said, 'People go missing,'" Westmoreland continued. "I didn't remember it," Richard told the court, later stating that she remembers "everything I am telling you now." Defense questions Richard's version of egg skillet incident, reminds her she's under oath Adam Reiss and David K. Li Defense lawyer Nicole Westmoreland tried to poke holes in Richard's claim that Combs attacked Ventura with a skillet of eggs. Westmoreland suggested in her questions that Richard has told different versions of the 2009 incident, including one that simply had Combs throwing eggs at Ventura. Richard told jurors on Friday that she saw Combs try to hit Ventura with the skillet. Westmoreland reminded Richard that she's under oath and then asked if she's changed her story over time. Richard responded: "I said the best that I could recall." Share Defense begins cross-examination of Richard Combs' attorney, Nicole Westmoreland, began cross-examination of Richard and picked up where prosecutors left off — Richard's lawsuit against Combs. Westmoreland asked if Richard was aware there was a pending motion to dismiss her lawsuit, a standard practice with civil suits, but Richard said she didn't know. Defense then began a line of questioning in an attempt to undermine Richard's testimony last week that she witnessed Combs throw a skillet at Cassie. Westmoreland asked if Richard's allegations have "changed over time." Westmoreland said that in a letter sent to Combs, Richard alleged she "heard a pan hit the wall" but didn't see it. Richard responded to the series of questions that she wasn't aware or didn't recall what Westmoreland was referencing. CORRECTION (May 19, 1:47 p.m. ET): A previous version of this live blog misstated Richard's testimony Friday. She testified that Combs tried to strike Ventura with a skillet, not that he struck Ventura. Richard says she's seeking 'justice,' not a big civil court payout Adam Reiss and David K. Li Richard ended her direct examination by saying she's seeking "justice." In hopes of inoculating Richard against defense claims that she'd be biased against Combs due to her federal lawsuit against the music mogul, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitzi Steiner asked the witness what she hopes to gain from testifying. Steiner asked Richard if she's expecting "any compensation for your testimony?" "I'm expecting justice," she responded. Combs supplied with drugs by dealer named 'One Stop' and was surrounded by guns, Richard says Prosecutors returned to questioning about Combs' drug use, or rather his offers of drugs to other people, while Richard was on the stand. Richard testified that Combs would have a drug dealer named "One Stop" deliver a range of substances to the recording studio, including cocaine and marijuana. She also told the court that Combs or his assistants would carry a Louis Vuitton pouch filled with drugs. Cassie Ventura referred to the Louis Vuitton pouch as Combs' "med bag" during her testimony last week. Prosecutors then asked if Richard ever saw a weapon while with Combs. Richard said she saw firearms a "few times" and that Combs' bodyguards "had them and they held them in their lower back." Cassie told to 'wait her turn' for album; Combs' employees didn't stop violence, Richard says Combs would angrily tell his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura to "wait for her turn" for recording an album, Richard said. When Richard would support Ventura's musical aspirations, Combs "didn't like me talking with her about that," the witness said. "He said it would be on his terms. It was always wait, wait, wait. She had to wait for her turn, sometimes it was just wait your turn, other times it was violent or volatile," she said. The witness said numerous employees of Combs' and his Bad Boy Records witnessed his violence against Ventura and no one stepped in. Richard's testimony could help bolster the prosecution's narrative that Combs committed racketeering conspiracy by using his "multi-faceted business empire" to coerce and control women for sex. Richard was in two different music groups formed by Combs Doha Madani Richard is likely best known for her time performing with the girl group Danity Kane, but she was also in another musical group in the mid-2000s. She got her start with Combs through his reality show "Making the Band 3," which is how Danity Kane formed. The group had two relatively popular albums between 2006 and 2008, but disbanded in January 2009. Combs then briefly formed a trio with himself, Richard and Kalenna Harper the same year it was announced Danity Kane broke up. That lasted until roughly 2012, and Richard released a solo album called "Goldenheart" the next year. Share Women in Dirty Money wore sunglasses in 'solidarity' with Ventura after beating, Richard says The two female members of Diddy-Dirty Money wore sunglasses alongside Cassie Ventura during a Central Park appearance as a way to support her, Richard testified. According to Richard, Ventura was punched in the face by Diddy at his home in 2009 ahead of the event. Diddy's former girlfriend had a swollen eye that Ventura used makeup and sunglasses to hide, Richard told the court. "We wore sunglasses to have solidarity with her and have a support system because she needed it," Richard said. Beatings from Combs often triggered by Cassie 'speaking up for herself,' Richard says Adam Reiss and David K. Li Dawn Richard said she regularly witnessed Combs lashing out at Cassie Ventura over the years, often after his then-girlfriend would voice her opinion. "Frequently, he would punch her, choke her, slap her in the mouth, kick her, punch her in the stomach," Richard told jurors. "It could be because Cassie was speaking up for herself. It could be random. It could be if she had an opinion for herself," Richard said. "She would be quiet and when she had these moments of trying to stick up for herself, he would hurt her for it." Share Richard testifies Combs told her she could die or 'go missing' Adam Reiss and David K. Li Richard recalled how frightened she was when Combs allegedly threatened her and the defendant's then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura. The incident happened in 2009, a day after Combs attacked Ventura with a skillet, according to Richard. "He said you could go missing, that we could die," Richard told jurors. "I was shocked but also scared, I couldn't believe this would be the beginning of a journey for us (with the group Dirty Money)." Share Richard and Combs' attorneys arrive at court Marlene Lenthang Former Danity Kane member Dawn Richard arrived at court shortly after 8 a.m. Combs' attorneys, including Xavier Donaldson, Alexandra Shapiro and Marc Agnifilo, were also seen arriving this morning. Share Here's what Dawn Richard said in court Friday Marlene Lenthang, Adam Reiss and Deon J. Hampton Dawn Richard, a former member of Danity Kane, an all-girl group Diddy created on MTV's "Making the Band," took the stand Friday and testified that she saw Combs physically assault Ventura in his Los Angeles home in 2009. Richard alleged he threw Ventura to the ground, threw a skillet full of eggs at her, put his arm around her neck and dragged her upstairs. "I was scared for her, I was scared to do anything," Richard testified. Richard is expected to continue her testimony today. Marriage therapist speaks on Combs and Ventura's relationship Gadi Schwartz Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Cassie Ventura were in a decadeslong relationship. As Ventura wrapped up her testimony in the trial, NBC News' Gadi Schwartz spoke to Sonnet Daymont, a licensed marriage and family therapist, about the couple's relationship. Share How the Combs trial might affect hip-hop Gadi Schwartz Combs spent most of his career as an influential figure in hip-hop; now he is on trial over human trafficking allegations. NBC News' Gadi Schwartz talks to Variety Senior Music Writer Steven J. Horowitz about how this trial might affect the genre.
NBC News
14-05-2025
- NBC News
Live updates: Cassie continues testifying in Sean 'Diddy' Combs sex-trafficking trial
Where the sex-trafficking trial stands Cassie will return to the stand today as the government's star witness. In her testimony yesterday, she detailed explicit events that she said would happen in the "freak offs" that Combs requested her to participate in. The jury was shown security video showing Combs assaulting Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. Ventura was asked in court how many other times Combs had thrown her like that. "Too many to count," she said. Combs faces five criminal counts: one count of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs has vociferously denied the allegations against him. This live briefing may include graphic descriptions of sexual violence. For resources on sexual assault, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline.
Los Angeles Times
14-04-2025
- Los Angeles Times
Her father drugged and facilitated her mother Gisèle Pelicot's rape by dozens. Caroline Darian recounts how she survived
At 8:24 p.m. on Nov. 2, 2020, Caroline Darian was a happily married 42-year-old working mother, close to her parents and two brothers, David and Florian, content with a life so ordinary that she would later characterize it as 'banal.' Then, one minute later, she became someone very different. The phone rang and her life was split in two. From that moment, Darian's personal timeline would exist on two opposing planes: The years before she learned that for more than a decade, her father, Dominique Pelicot, had systematically drugged, raped and enabled more than 70 men to rape her mother, Gisèle Pelicot, and the days, weeks and months that followed. Days, weeks and months that Darian chronicles with powerful precision and detail in 'I'll Never Call Him Dad Again: Turning Our Family Trauma of Sexual Assault and Chemical Submission Into a Collective Fight,' published in the United States in March. (Caroline Darian is a pen name for Caroline Peyronnet.) 'Later on, I learned that those who experience sudden trauma can often only recall a single isolated detail — a smell, a noise, a particular sensation; something infinitely small, which expands to take up all the available space, ' Darian writes. 'For me it's the clock on the cooker. Twenty-five minutes past eight, etched in stark white.' In 2020, Dominique Pelicot was arrested for 'upskirting' — attempting to take photos underneath the skirts of three women. During the subsequent search of his phone and computer, police found an enormous cache of photos and videos of Dominique and men he solicited on the internet raping a drugged Gisèle. Last year, the world watched the Pelicot trial with a mixture of horror and awe — horror at the enormity of the crime, which led to the conviction of 51 men, including Dominique, and awe inspired by Gisèle's courage. The tiny woman with the red bob became a feminist icon for her decision to waive her right to anonymity and allow the trial to be made public in order to shift the shame that often surrounds rape, from the victims to the perpetrators. But Gisèle was not the only victim as 'I'll Never Call Him Dad Again' makes clear. The international bestseller, which was published in France in 2022, is drawn from Darian's journals of the living nightmare that followed Dominique's arrest. Day after day, Darian and her brothers attempted to care for their mother as they grappled with a cascade of proof that the loving father and husband they thought they knew was, in reality, a cold, conniving and manipulative monster. The various concerns they had after Dominique and Gisèle moved from Paris to Mazan, a small town in the south of France, now filled them with guilt. Darian and other family members were worried enough about her mother's episodes of mind-numbing fatigue, bouts of memory loss and other physical symptoms to take her to various doctors. But, having no reason to demand a toxicology report and with their father ascribing the symptoms to Gisèle's tendency to 'overdo,' they were forced to accept vague diagnoses associated with aging. After the shocking revelations, memories of their mother falling dead asleep at the dinner table, being unable to remember past conversations and, in one instance, experiencing vaginal bleeding, took on new and agonizing meaning. Then, still reeling from the crimes committed against her mother, Darian was called back to the Mazan police station to be shown two photos of herself, asleep in an unusual position, her buttocks exposed to reveal panties that were not hers. Photos she had absolutely no memory of. Confronted with these images, and the possibility that she too had been drugged and raped, Darian experienced a mental breakdown and required hospitalization. The passages recounting her shattered emotional state and her understandable fear of the sedatives that were administered to calm her, are terrifying in their battered simplicity and clarity of purpose. It was after this breakdown, Darian says, that she became determined to write a near-journalistic account of her experience. 'I started writing two weeks after I was released from a psychiatric hospital,' she says over Zoom from France. 'It was a real deep need — I work in communications and this book became a means of survival. First putting down the words, then sharing as a form of therapy.' She wanted to recount her story as matter-of-factly as she could so people might understand how a crime like this could be committed, and the widespread damage it had done. 'It isn't just the Pelicot family that was destroyed,' she says. 'All the other rapists had families too, families who had no idea what they were doing.' As she worked through her own anger, shock and grief, Darian realized that society's ignorance of the prevalent use of drugs in sexual abuse was one reason Dominique had been able to get away with his crimes for so long. 'I'd heard of GHB, the date rape drug, but had no idea how widespread it had become,' she writes. 'Nor did I know that rapists were turning more and more to sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medicine … my ignorance strikes me as almost culpable.' With the French publication of 'I'll Never Call Him Dad Again' in 2022, Darian began a campaign to raise awareness about the role drugs play in rape and sexual abuse. 'I've received so many testimonials from other women but also teenagers because of incest, when drugs are often used.' With the #MendorsPas (Don't Put Me Under) movement, Darian hopes to help create medical and law enforcement protocol for investigations into potential cases of chemical submission. 'The [general practitioners] my mother saw, the neurologists, they couldn't help,' she says. 'They couldn't analyze her symptoms properly because there were no trends available. We thought she had brain cancer. We thought she had Alzheimer's.' Once the truth was discovered, the small Mazan police force was not equipped to deal with the nature of the crimes or the emotional impact on the victims. 'We were given this information, shown these images and then just left alone,' she says. 'We were offered no support, we were totally alone.' The bulk of the evidence police found involved Dominique's abuse of Gisèle, but Darian points out that there were also photos of her and both her sisters-in-law — 'no woman in our family was spared' — as well as connections to cold-case rapes. Last month, Darian filed new charges against her father, who is also being investigated in connection with several cold cases. Dominique has denied ever touching his daughter. 'The original investigation lasted two and a half years, but the south of France is a very small place. They were overwhelmed. That is why the investigation focused on Gisèle.' A second book, recently published in France, is Darian's account of the trial, during which she openly challenged her father's denial of harming her, and her work battling chemical submission. She has been working with a politician on a government report that she hopes will offer concrete solutions. 'I knew I needed to make this useful,' she says. 'I am a mum, I have a job, but I want to add my own experience to help identify victims in France and the world. I'm an activist and I knew that if I had to go through this, it's not by chance. I have the strength to carry it.' Speaking about her experiences, including those early days when her life cracked apart, hasn't become easier with time — during a 45-minute interview, Darian's voice chokes with emotion on more than one occasion, particularly when speaking about her mother. In 'I'll Never Call Him Dad Again,' Darian discusses Gisèle's refusal to even consider that Dominique would abuse Darian and the wedge that drove between her and her mother. Darian is proud of her mother's decision to make the trial public. 'I told her from the beginning that it could not be closed door,' she says. 'I told her that would be a gift to only one person.' Gisèle is also working on a memoir, 'A Hymn to Life,' set to be published early next year, but the mother and daughter have limited communication. 'We are each on a different path,' Darian says. 'It's too heavy; she needs to recover. She needs to rebuild herself — she's almost 73 — and me, I'm on another journey. Dominique was judged for her and that's right. The way she's handling this belongs to her, but it's too painful for me. She is well-supported and is dealing with her life the way she decided to do. But we are not a family anymore.' 'Dominique succeeded,' she adds sadly. 'He split our family in two.'
