Woman: My brother led LI sex slavery ring

In a monotone that belied the potential importance of her testimony, the sister of a man accused of heading a sex slavery ring in Suffolk said Monday that her brother was the ringleader.

Dressed in green prison fatigues and looking anguished, Jasmin Rivera, 33, of Medford, answered time after time that it was "my brother, Antonio Rivera" -- not she -- who headed the cantinas where, prosecutors say, young undocumented immigrants were forced to have sex with patrons.

Jasmin Rivera and her brother Antonio, 35, of Patchogue, were both initially indicted on the same sex trafficking, forced labor and immigration violation charges. A conviction could mean a possible life sentence.

But Jasmin Rivera has taken a plea bargain on lesser charges and is hoping to get a shorter sentence for cooperating with the government, according to several sources familiar with the case. "She's really torn up by what she has done," said one source.

Defense attorneys for Antonio Rivera and his two remaining co-defendants have suggested that Jasmin Rivera was the mastermind of the ring.

But under questioning by federal prosecutor John Richmond in federal court in Central Islip, Jasmin Rivera said it was her brother who put up most of the money for the two Suffolk bars in Lake Ronkonkoma and Farmingville.

Though she acknowledged that she had signed legal documents indicating that she was the president of the organization that bought or leased the cantinas, she said that she had done so at her brother's request.

Jasmin Rivera said that the documents were all in English, and she does not read English. Similarly, she said that while she had applied for a state liquor license, she had done so for her brother and could not read it.

Jasmin Rivera is expected to continue testifying Tuesday and then be cross-examined by attorneys for her brother and his two co-defendants, John Whaley, 31, of Bellport, and Jason Villaman, 32, of Brentwood. Defense attorneys for Antonio Rivera, Whaley and Villaman have maintained their clients' innocence.

The two now-defunct bars where the ring allegedly operated were Sonidos de la Frontera in Lake Ronkonkoma and La Hija del Mariachi in Farmingville. Federal agents and Suffolk police raided the bars in 2009.

Earlier, under questioning by federal prosecutor Licha Nyiendo, a woman, identified only as "Krissyl" testified that she had worked as a bartender at La Hija and had seen Antonio Rivera and a patron take an apparently drunken waitress to a backroom for sex, after the patron had paid $200.