Defense witnesses testify at rape trial

The mother, fiancee and friends of one of three men accused of running a sex-slavery ring out of two Suffolk cantinas testified Tuesday that they saw none of the sexual activity prosecutors allege.

The four defense witnesses attempted to support the account of Jason Villaman, 32, of Patchogue, that he had no involvement in the ring that federal prosecutors say was run out of Sonidos de La Frontera in Lake Ronkonkoma, and La Hija del Mariachi in Farmingville. Three of the witnesses said that when they visited Sonidos, where Villaman worked as a security guard, they saw no waitresses engaged in sex.

Several waitresses, testifying for the government, have said they were forced to have sex with customers at Sonidos, sometimes publicly, under threat of being turned into authorities as undocumented immigrants.

Villaman's defense witnesses spoke after federal prosecutors rested their case against him and co-defendants Antonio Rivera, 35, of Patchogue, and John Whaley, 31, of Bellport. Attorneys for Rivera and Whaley also rested without presenting witnesses.

Villaman, Rivera, and Whaley are charged with sexual trafficking, forced labor and immigration violations.

Villaman's mother, Luz Batista, testified that it was highly unlikely that her son had brought to their house a drunken waitress to have sex with him and another man, as prosecutors have alleged.

Batista said that she was a very light sleeper and often awakened when he came home from Sonidos after 4 a.m., under questioning by Villaman's attorney Terrence Buckley. She said she would have been awakened by the home's motion-sensitive floodlights and their five pet dogs barking.

Villaman's friend, Paul Newton; his fiancee, Margaret Patterson, and sister of friend Sandra Langeros all testified that while they were in Sonidos, for up to six hours at a time, they saw waitresses only serving drinks and dancing with customers.

Under cross-examination by federal prosecutors, Newton acknowledged he could not see the entire bar area when he was there and Patterson and Langeros said they were at Sonidos for just several hours at a time.

Attorneys are expected to sum up Wednesday and the jury should begin deliberations after being charged by U.S. District Court Judge Sandra Feuerstein.