SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic —
A prominent Dominican lawyer who has been accused of hosting outings on his yacht in which a New Jersey senator used the services of prostitutes strongly denied the allegations Monday and said he would seek a criminal investigation into the source of the reports.
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez on Monday issued his own denial of the allegations from Washington, calling them false “smears.”
The attorney, Vinicio Castillo Seman, says the allegations, published in U.S. media and on the Internet, are “absurd.” He filed a formal complaint with the district attorney of Santo Domingo, a step that typically triggers a criminal investigation under the legal system of the Caribbean country.
A prosecutor was scheduled to meet with Castillo on Tuesday to discuss his complaint, according to the district attorney’s office.
Castillo, the son of a presidential adviser and the brother of a member of the Congress, called a news conference to discuss what he called the “false and defamatory” allegations that his yacht was the scene of encounters involving prostitutes, two of whom were underage, hired for the use of Menendez.
He said he has known the U.S. senator for about 15 years and had never seen him with a prostitute.
“I have never seen him behave in any way that was not impeccable and dignified,” Castillo said.
The senator met with reporters in Washington on Monday and acknowledged that he flew on the doctor’s private plane to the Dominican Republic. But Menendez denied meeting with prostitutes and blamed the allegation on political enemies.
A watchdog group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, said it had received emails starting in April 2012 alleging that Menendez used the services of prostitutes from 2009-2010 in the Dominican Republic, and that two of them may have been 16, which would be illegal in both the Dominican Republic and the U.S., which prohibits people from traveling overseas to engage in sex with minors. The emails came from someone identified as “Peter Williams,” though that may be a pseudonym.
The tipster said the senator traveled to the Dominican Republic in the private plane of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye doctor of Dominican descent who is a prominent Democratic campaign contributor, and that the encounters with the prostitutes occurred in homes owned by Melgen and in a yacht owned by Castillo.
Castillo said he has never hosted any parties involving prostitutes on his boat and never lent it to Melgen. The accounts are “absurd,” he said.
“It’s absolutely false and slanderous to say that I have been on trips or at parties with underage prostitutes with Sen. Robert Menendez and Dr. Salomon Melgen,” he said.
CREW said it investigated the allegations, but was unable to prove or disprove them and sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice asking for an investigation. A conservative website, The Daily Caller, then published the allegations, which drew more attention after Melgen’s offices in South Florida were recently raided by U.S. federal agents. The FBI has declined to say why it searched Melgen’s office or whether he is under investigation.
In a series of emails sent to CREW, the person identified as Williams provided names, numbers and an address for some of the alleged prostitutes. The phone numbers are not in service except in one case in which the woman who has the number says she has no connection to any of the parties involved in the allegations and is not a prostitute. The names of the alleged prostitutes in the emails are either nicknames or common and The Associated Press has been unable to locate any of them.
Castillo said the episode is a “smear campaign,” intended to scuttle a contract for port security by a company controlled by Melgen.
The Dominican Republic, which has become a busy transit point for drugs destined for the United States and Europe, has only one X-ray to screen port cargo. It was donated by the United States.
A company called I.C.S.S.I. signed a contract in 2002 to provide screening throughout the country but the government suspended it in 2004 before it went into effect amid claims that it was too expensive and the bid process had not been competitive. A company run by Melgen bought the company in 2011 and he has been seeking to reinstate the contract, which has been tied up in the courts.
“It’s evident that drug traffickers and their powerful allies in our country have no interest in the use in seeing this technology implemented in our ports,” he said.
Top News
Dominican lawyer dismisses prostitution reports
-
-
G8 exposes rift among leaders on Syria
Deep differences over Syria’s fierce civil war clouded a summit of world leaders Monday, with Russian President Vladimir Putin defiantly rejecting calls from the U.S., Britain and France to halt his political and military support for Syrian leader Bashar Assad’s regime.
-
Unions give lift to Turkish protest movement
Turkish labor groups fanned a wave of defiance against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authority, leading rallies and a one-day strike to support activists whose two-week standoff with the government has shaken the country’s secular democracy.
-
For young immigrants, a delayed coming of age
As a child, Jorge Tume used to sit and do homework as his parents cleaned the desks and floors of a concrete company in Miami. When he was done, he’d take out the trash and help finish cleaning.
-
Investigators ‘zeroing in’ on Colo. wildfire start
Sheriff’s officials say they have now recorded more than 500 homes leveled by the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history.
-
Still no Hoffa after 1st day of latest search
Federal agents revived the hunt for the remains of Jimmy Hoffa on Monday, digging around in a suburban Detroit field where a reputed Mafia captain says the Teamsters boss’ body was buried.
-
Today in History for Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Today is Tuesday, June 18, the 169th day of 2013. There are 196 days left in the year.
-
Series of attacks kill 51 people across Iraq
A blistering string of apparently coordinated bombings and a shooting across Iraq killed at least 51 and wounded dozens Sunday, spreading fear throughout the county in a wave of violence that is raising the prospect of a return to widespread sectarian killing a decade after a U.S.-led invasion.
-
Turkey unrest goes on despite end to park protest
Riot police cordoned off streets, set up roadblocks and fired tear gas and water cannon to prevent anti-government protesters from converging on Istanbul’s central Taksim Square on Sunday, unbowed even as Turkey’s prime minister addressed hundreds of thousands of supporters a few kilometers away.
-
Iraq no-fly zone viewed as symbol for one in Syria
The Obama administration, trying to avoid getting drawn deeper into Syria’s civil war, has pointed to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 as a symbol of what can go wrong when America’s military wades into Middle East conflicts.
-
Steady rain falls as crews work against Colo. fire
With evacuees anxious to return, firefighters worked Sunday to dig up and extinguish hot spots to protect homes spared by the most destructive wildfire in Colorado’s history.
- More Top News Headlines
-
