RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — The latest hearing in the ongoing San Bernardino County legal proceedings against adult performer Mercedes Carrera and her husband Jason Whitney for the alleged sexual abuse of Carrera's daughter took place today at the Rancho Cucamonga courthouse.
Carrera and Whitney were brought in separately this morning around 10 a.m. (PDT) and their lawyers asked for the codefendants to be able to come back for Disposition and Resetting (D&R) pretrial hearing on October 25. Judge Katrina West granted their request.
Joshua Castro and Nicola Fitzgerald, attorneys for Carreras and Whitney respectively requested to calendar a "D&R" for October 25. “D&R means disposition and resetting,” Castro told XBIZ. “That's a date where we can reach a disposition which is not likely to happen or reset trial dates. We expect to be ‘resetting’ or picking new trial dates on that date. We have agreed that trial can begin within 60 days of October 25.”
Today’s proceedings were the first since Carrera and Whitney were re-arraigned on the revised version of the charges on August 19, following the long-delayed preliminary hearing on August 8.
Carrera and Whitney were arrested and their house searched on February 1, less than 24 hours after a police officer interviewed Carrera’s 9-year-old daughter at the home of the child’s father.
At the preliminary hearing, Officer Theis, who conducted the interview, testified that the girl’s father, motorcycle sports photographer Barry Hathaway, a resident of the hillside communities above San Bernardino County, had a conflictive relationship with Carrera and Whitney. Hathaway, according to Theis, told the policeman immediately before he interviewed the child about possible sexual abuse that he was concerned about issues of violence in Carrera and Whitney’s home.
As her main piece of preliminary evidence, Brianne Durose, the San Bernardino County District Attorney prosecuting Carrera and Whitney since their arrest, played a recording of the interview, over an hour long, that Theis conducted with the minor on January 31, with only her father present.
That explicit interview at Hathaway’s lakeside property, which occurred without a social worker or child psychologist present, appears, as of this writing, to be the only evidence for the Rancho Cucamonga police department to obtain a search warrant against the couple.
During the last hearing, the jury trial for Carrera and Whitney was scheduled to commence September 30, with a pre-trial hearing today and another one on September 27.
The defendants entered not-guilty pleas.
After the preliminary hearing, DA Durose dropped the initial drugs and guns charges against the couple. However, Durose added three more sexual abuse charges against each of them.
The original February charges, also filed by DA Durose, were 18, nine for each defendant. The first charge, carrying a possible sentence of 25-to-life, was for “sexual intercourse or sodomy with child 10 years old or younger.” Charges 2-8 were all for “oral copulation or sexual penetration with child 10 years old or younger,” with a possible sentence of 15 to life. The 9th charge was for “possession of a controlled substance with a firearm.”
Additional reporting by Shawna Kenney.
For more of XBIZ's coverage of the Carrera case, click here.
