Girl testifies that Roberto said he wanted to marry her

A 16-year-old girl testified yesterday that former acting Division of Fish and Wildlife director Raymond B. Roberto once told her that he wants to marry her when she turns 18.

In the continuation of her testimony in the ongoing jury trial of 40-year-old Roberto, the girl said she felt uncomfortable and scared when Roberto talked about marrying her.

When asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rami S. Badawy why she felt that way, the girl said it’s because Roberto is the father of a relative.

Roberto is on trial for three counts of enticing three minors to engage in prostitution and one count of witness tampering.

Under cross-examination by defense counsel David J. Lujan, the girl admitted that she and another girl wrote separate letters on Aug. 5, 2013, each demanding $400 cash from Roberto. Lujan presented in court a copy of the girl’s letter that he described as an attempt to blackmail his client.

In the letter, the girl threatened that if Roberto fails to give her the money, she would tell the Federal Bureau of Investigation and police about him and that he will rot in jail.

The girl admitted that she and the other girl talked about demanding money from Roberto before writing the separate letters.

She said she asked her mother to send her letter to Roberto, but advised her not to open it. The girl said she asked her mother to deliver it because it was only her mother who could visit her at the Juvenile Facility at that time.

The girl said she eventually told her mother about her sexual encounters with Roberto when the FBI agents picked her up.

During the prosecution’s direct questioning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rami S. Badawy showed several pages of text messages, which the girl identified as hers and Roberto’s exchange of messages during their negotiations for payment before having sex.

In some of the messages, the girl explained that Roberto wanted to train another girl, whom he described as a “shy girl,” to be more experienced in sex.

In her testimony on Friday, the girl disclosed that she and “shy girl” and her then 15-year-old friend had a foursome with Roberto at the Parkville Motel in Gualo Rai in April 2013.

The girl testified yesterday that Roberto also asked her if she wanted to be videotaped while she and her then-boyfriend were having sex, but she refused to do so.

She said Roberto also asked her to have sex with him without payment, but she said no. She denied having sex with Roberto without payment.

She recalled having sex with Roberto in exchange for cash at his farm. She could not recall how much he paid her.

She said she would sometimes use her friends’ cell phone or her then-boyfriend’s cell phone to communicate with Roberto to negotiate or arrange for sex in exchange for cash. The money mentioned ranged from $20 to $200.

She disclosed that she once took a photo of Roberto while he was naked, but that she later deleted it because it was her friend’s cell phone’s camera. She said she took the photo in order for her to get back at Roberto if he ever messes up with her.

During Lujan’s cross-examination, the girl said that she always mentioned during interviews by investigators that she ran away from her father on March 13, 2013. She denied changing her story that it was actually April 10, 2013, when she ran away because investigators learned that Roberto at that time was in American Samoa.

The girl said she may be wrong because she could not recall then as it happened over a year ago.

The girl said she told the FBI special agent that she ran away from her father a day before her stepmother gave birth.

The girl also admitted that she used to smoke methamphetamine or “ice” and is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder that may have affected her memory of events.

Lujan is expected to continue her cross-examination on the girl today, Tuesday.