A Nigerian man has been controversially handed an unbelievable sentence
for raping and assaulting his own daughter in far away United States of
America.
Emmanuel Ngene will be spending his sixth year inside a South
Eastern United States penitentiary. At 56, he has 225 years, five months
and ten days left to serve for first degree rape of his daughter, a
crime he continues to deny, supported by members of his network of
friends and family. Few years after he was incarcerated, Emma Ngene had
partial stroke from the stress of the trial and subsequent imprisonment.
Emmanue Ngene, like most aspiring young Nigerians whose lives were
mortgaged to a battered inflation-driven economy of early 80s, sought
survival overseas. He chose the United States as his destination for
better life. He relocated in 1981. He would discover that life in God’s
own country was just an imaginary tale. On arrival, Emmanuel desired
education. But he had no money. Survival in a strange place, alone, was
then important to him. He engaged in menial jobs to support his dreams
of a better life here.
Years after he adapted to the lifestyle and surviving the culture
shock of a different environment, Emmanuel returned to his hometown in
Eastern Nigeria in search of a wife. He found love in Mary, a home girl.
They married months after. Emmanuel became a regular visitor to his
homeland from America; frequenting his village to be with his new wife
and family. He returned every holiday, especially Christmas, to
celebrate with his wife and other members of the family. Their first
child, a baby girl, was born on November 9, 1998 in Nigeria. The couple
would have two additional children after the birth of their daughter.
In June 2007, Emmanuel’s wife and children came to the United
States to live in a two-bedroomed apartment with their father. Family
and friends said that marital problems manifested when the wife was
shocked at the strange standard of living in America as compared to what
she was used to in Nigeria. She was also alleged to be disappointed
that her husband was a Taxicab driver, an unsteady source of financial
income.
Emmanuel was gone all day, driving a taxi from morning and returned
home at night with not enough income to support the family. Soon, the
parents began arguing about money. Mary allegedly complained regularly
of being bored at home, caring for the children. Emmanuel, frustrated by
her daily musings about life in the United States and insufficient
income, encouraged his wife to get certification for CNA: Certified
Nurses Aid: she did, passed and got employed at one of the nursing homes
as a care giver: providing ageing American population with daily
assisted living and care.
His wife’s new job, allegedly introduced her to a new social
environment. She immediately began to explore her new found friends and
friendship within her work place. Emmanuel suspected a change in his
wife’s attitudes: she was no longer the charming obedient wife he had
in Nigeria. She would refuse his sexual desires and appeals. The
marriage became tumultuous.
They were drifting apart as husband and wife: Emmanuel complained
to his friends that his wife was always gone and seemed no longer
interested in the marriage. It also affected his taxi cab business. He
often returned home midday to make sure the children were fed and cared
for. Most times, he alleged the wife was gone. When he asked her where
she had been, she yelled at him: ‘mind your business.
I am a grown woman and I can do whatever I want to do.’ Emma was
raging inside. He thought he had a decent beautiful wife that loved the
family and the children. He thought it was until death do them part! A
wife he married and suffered to bring to America. Their children were
drifting apart too.
The circumstances that led Emmanuel Ngene into a lifetime jail are
too complex. The stories are bizarre from both sides. Ngene’s family
sources, almost seven years after he was found guilty, still believed he
was railroaded by his wife and the judiciary. Their stories remain
consistent, each alleging that Ngene’s wife, Mary, may have coerced her
daughter to lie that her father raped and assaulted her.
Part of the family version said that during one of Ngene’s lunch
visits home to check on the children, he allegedly found his then young
daughter in an explicit compromising position with a neighborhood boy,
in the family’s living room!. He became agitated, asked the boy to leave
immediately. Soon after the boy left, he grabbed his daughter and
spanked her intensely. Mother allegedly walked in as dad was spanking
their daughter. She jumped on him and began to scratch and scream.
Their daughter, disengaged from the whip, cried profusely from the
burns of the belt whipping. She had lacerations on her butt. Their
mother, while restraining Emmanuel, instructed their daughter to dial
911. Few minutes later, police came to their door, handcuffed Emmanuel
and took him down town. The police officer, noticing the lacerations on
the girl’s body, requested for the ambulance to take the young girl and
her mother to hospital for medical observations and interrogation.
Emmanuel was hauled to jail!
However, in a court document filed, the court posited, “One day in
August 2007, defendant asked Cindy(to protect the minor child, the court
identified her as Cindy, not her real name) to help him check his email
on the computer in his bedroom. After they had finished with the email,
defendant told Cindy to stay in the room while he went into the
bathroom. He came out wearing only his underwear and a T-shirt. He asked
her if she knew what sex was and then pulled down her pants while she
was lying on the bed.
He pulled off his underwear, got on top of her, and had vaginal
intercourse with her. On 31 August 2008, Cindy’s mother took Cindy to
the emergency room at Wake Med where they met with a nurse, Kimberly
Lewis, and a doctor, Dr. Chris Johnson. Ms. Lewis did a head-to-toe
assessment of Cindy and observed bruises on her arms. Cindy told her the
bruises came from a broomstick. Cindy also informed Ms. Lewis that she
had been sexually assaulted many times.
“Dr. Johnson took a basic history and examined Cindy to determine
if she needed immediate treatment. Cindy told him that defendant had
been having vaginal and anal intercourse with her over the past year.
Because she had not been assaulted within the past 72 hours, Dr. Johnson
did not perform a rape kit. Dr. Johnson’s examination of Cindy was
limited to her external genitalia and looking for signs of trauma, of
which he saw none. He diagnosed Cindy with alleged sexual abuse. He
noticed that Cindy appeared somewhat shy and that her mother was
“appropriately concerned and worried.”
The hospital notified Wake County Human Services (“WCHS”) and the
Raleigh Police Department (“RPD”) of the allegations. Katie Treadway of
WCHS and Officer Harvey of RPD arrived at the hospital to interview
Cindy. After describing the sexual conduct, Cindy also informed them
that one time she bled after defendant had sex with her. She also stated
that sometimes defendant “peed on her,” and she had to go in the
bathroom to clean herself up. Ms. Treadway felt Cindy was very detailed
in her description of the events.
Over the course of Cindy’s fourth grade school year, defendant
engaged in vaginal intercourse with Cindy approximately 10 times.
Approximately three of these times, defendant had her turn over on her
stomach so he could also penetrate her anus. In August 2008, Cindy
finally disclosed to her mother what defendant was doing.
At the hospital, the doctors during examination found that she had
been penetrated. The police officer asked her who may have penetrated
her; she looked at her mother, seeking protection. Her mother instructed
her to answer that it was her father! She reluctantly told the officer
that her father had penetrated her! The officer asked if she was sure,
she bowed and fearfully said yes sir!”
However, Emmanuel Ngene denied the rape charges and penetration of
his daughter. He contended that her daughter was sexually molested and
penetrated by a boy at her school in Nigeria, the head mistress of the
daughter’s school called him when the incident happened and he travelled
home to remove his daughter from the school because of the molestation.
The court wrote thus:
“Defendant first contends that the trial court erred in not
allowing him to testify regarding his claim that Cindy had been sexually
assaulted in 2006 by someone else while in Nigeria. He argues that this
evidence was admissible under N.C.R. Evid. 412(b) because it provided
an alternative explanation for the paediatrician’s physical findings.
Although Rule 412 generally excludes evidence of a complainant’s prior
sexual behaviour as irrelevant, it provides an exception for “evidence
of specific instances of sexual behaviour offered for the purpose of
showing that the act or acts charged were not committed by the
defendant.” N.C.R. Evid. 412(b)(2).
“Here, defendant testified during voir dire that, in 2006, he
received a call from his wife that Cindy had been sexually assaulted at
school, was walking funny, and was bleeding. He claimed that he flew
home to Nigeria and transferred Cindy from Graceland Private School,
where the assault had supposedly occurred, to another school.
“When Cindy and her mother were questioned on voir dire,
however, each denied that any sexual assault had occurred. Cindy
acknowledged changing schools, but her mother explained that she had
moved Cindy to a different school because Graceland Private School was
too expensive.”
Emmanuel remained in the county jail as prosecutors began to build a
case against him. The prosecutor offered him a deal: Plead guilty and
spend 15 years in jail or go to trial and if found guilty, could face
250 years to life. He refused the deal and sought to be tried because it
was an abomination, in his culture, for a man to sexually molest his
own daughter and penetrate her. He felt his innocence and said that he
would rather die in jail than plead guilty to a crime he did not commit.
It took one year for Emmanuel to go to trial. It only took the jury
three hours to return with a guilty verdict. Emmanuel was sentenced to
300 to 369 years in prison. On December 3, 2009, Emmanuel Ngene began
serving his sentence. He was preparing to travel to Nigeria to bury his
mother when he was arrested.
“On 22 September 2008, a grand jury returned 15 separate bills
of indictment, charging defendant with four counts of indecent liberties
with a child, four counts of incest, three counts of first degree
sexual offence, and four counts of first degree rape. Following trial,
the jury found defendant guilty of all 15 counts and also found the
existence of an aggravating factor: that defendant had taken “advantage
of a position of trust or confidence to commit the offence or offences.”
The trial court entered 15 separate judgements. The court
sentenced defendant to four consecutive aggravated-range sentences of
300 to 369 months imprisonment for the four counts of first degree rape;
three consecutive aggravated-range sentences of 300 to 369 months
imprisonment for the three counts of first degree sex offence; four
consecutive presumptive-range sentences of 16 to 20 months imprisonment
for the four counts of incest; and four consecutive presumptive-range
sentences of 16 to 20 months for the four counts of indecent liberties
with a child. Defendant timely appealed to this Court.”
Recently, Ms. Mary Ngene was contacted for interview with regards to this essay. Her response: ”If you write anything about me, I will sue you!”
