We are here on behalf of Ajay Dev, a man who faces 378 years, 4 months in prison despite evidence that proved him innocent. Ajay was accused by his 26 year old adopted daughter, a Nepali citizen, of rape, which she claimed occurred over 750 times during a period of 4 years and 10 months, since she came to the United States in 1999.
Ajay and Peggy Dev adopted the accuser and brought her from Nepal to America to give her more opportunities, including a good education. They tried to preserve her Nepali culture and values, but the accuser chose to disregard their parental guidelines, began indulging in aberrant behavior and moved out of the home in December 2003. Family relationship deteriorated. The accuser blamed Ajay for all that was happening to her, including her loss of their financial support and her boyfriend breaking up with her. Out of retaliation she filed rape charges with the Davis police. Ajay took a lie detector test which demonstrated his innocence. In May 2004 the accuser requested that the charges be dropped.
A month later the accuser travelled to Nepal to attend her sister's wedding. During that time , the Nepali police filed charges against the accuser, aged 21, and her birth father for falsification of birth records-she reduced her age to qualify for adoption and immigration to the US . She was prosecuted by the Government of Nepal , NOT Ajay or one of his relatives. In a recorded phone call between the accusers's birth father and Det. Hermann on July 19, 2006 her father confirmed that it was NOT Ajay, but the Government of Nepal that prosecuted the accuser. She had dropped the charges, so there was no need for him to try to keep her out. She WAS convicted of passport fraud (a felony in this country), fined and sentenced to time already served in jail (19 days). Yet DDA Mount still brought charges forward on Ajay for keeping her in Nepal to try to escape charges. And moved the judge to not allow the evidence proving his innocence in front of the jury and Ajay was convicted.
Mount stated that Ajay followed her to Nepal to call her and ask her to stay in Nepal for 2-3 years, which is not true. Ajay travelled to Nepal because his first cousin passed away leaving a dependent family of 8 without any means to take care of themselves. He and his father went to help them and grieve the loss of their relative. Ajay would not have to travel to Nepal to call her since he could call her from a phone here rather than spend the money to travel to Nepal to make a phone call. Once the accuser realized she no longer possessed the legal documentation to reenter the U.S. , she contacted the police in Davis to reopen the rape case. Detective Hermann helped her negotiate her return through the embassy and immigration, saying she needed to return to testify. Ajay was charged 5 months after her return.
Ajay was convicted despite testimony from the accuser's medical doctor, social worker, a psychologist, family and friends, who stated there was no sign of any abuse. You can't miss 750 rapes. The doctor would have seen her in the time that 642 rapes occurred, the social worker 120 times. It's impossible that no one saw anything. The Deputy District Attorney, Steve Mount, had no evidence other than the accuser's testimony which was filled with statements that were proven at trial to be false, at times by her own admission. The prosecutor was allowed 16 days to present his case, while the judge allowed the defense only 6 ½ days to present 24 witnesses. The judge only allowed 3 hours of closing arguments to defend 92 counts.
Since the accuser's testimony was not credible, the prosecution's argument hinged on one sentence taken from a 50 minute pretext phone call taped and scripted by the Davis police, between the accuser and the defendant. The Deputy District Attorney convinced the jury that this one statement was an admission of guilt. It was NOT. Ajay told the accuser she was lying 27 times, before and after this statement – in English and Nepali. The statement was clearly a hypothetical remark made in the 34 th minute of the conversation. Any misunderstanding is due to language and cultural issues which are often times lost in the translation process. Ajay was trying to explain to the accuser how our legal system works demonstrating that if a statement like this was made it could possibly ruin both her life and his. He was NOT admitting to rape. Four sentences after this hypothetical remark the complaining witness states, “..I want you to talk to me. I want you to say it. ” She said she wants him to say it, but according to the prosecutor he just did. Clearly she disagreed with the prosecutor's interpretation.
In addition, the judge's refusal to allow into evidence certified court documents from Nepal which proved the accuser was kept in Nepal because she was prosecuted and convicted of passport fraud, not because of Ajay. These documents were certified through various levels of the Nepal government, and finally the Nepal Embassy in Washington , D.C. , verified that the accuser had falsified her birth records to achieve U.S. immigration status and was kept in Nepal due to using fraudulent documents to obtain a passport.
The judge denied the admission of the documents on the basis that the words “correct copy” were not used in the attestation, but the words “true translation” were used instead. The exclusion of these official foreign court documents sets a precedent for similar future court cases in California , and possibly all of the United States . By not allowing official documents from a country whose native language is other than English, the precedent is set that any judge can now refuse to accept those documents.
Over 2 million Americans are incarcerated in US prisons. According to the Truth & Justice Foundation at least 200,000 are these are innocent - 1 out of every 10. If we were talking about a disease, this would be considered an epidemic. There would be demands for a cure. The legal system is broken. Ajay Dev is an innocent man framed by his adopted daughter when she was 21 years old. We seek truth, justice and an investigation into this case.
