Law&Crime Sidebar - Miami Psychologist Lured Teen to Hotel Room in Shocking Sexual Assault: Cops

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

Maria Ximena Duarte, 45, is locked up in Miami-Dade County for allegedly plying a 15-year-old girl with alcohol and marijuana at a hotel pool before convincing her to come to her hotel room, where the teen was allegedly sexually assaulted. She faces serious charges, including human trafficking. Jason Mojica, Duarte’s boyfriend, was also arrested for his alleged participation. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down the details in the criminal complaint with trial attorney Jennifer El-Kadi.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lcsidebarDownload the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/sidebar to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. You're freaking out, but you had no problem with the facts alleged in here. It's pretty awful. It's only probable cause. It's not the trial. A psychologist breaks down in court as she hears the grave charges against her. Authorities in Florida accuse her of befriending a teenage girl at a hotel pool only to allegedly take her to a hotel room to be assaulted. We're taking a closer look at her arrest affidavit and appearance in court with trial attorney Jennifer Elcotti. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

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on your first tank of gas. Again, really appreciate Upside as a sponsor and for you guys for watching. A really alarming story out of Miami for you today. 45-year-old Maria Zemanadewarte is facing charges of lewd and lascivious. behavior with a minor as well as human trafficking. Yeah, she was arrested Saturday in Miami. Her mugshot shows her very red-faced and crying. Why? Because she is accused of befriending a 15-year-old

girl who was out reportedly walking her dog by the pool of a hotel, offering her marijuana and alcohol, before eventually convincing her to go to a hotel room where she was allegedly assaulted. Very, very serious allegations here. And Duarte appeared before Miami-day Judge Mindy Glazer to find out about Bond and became visibly distraught during the hearing. You see, while the judge reads out the charges against her, D'Warte repeatedly seems to try to interrupt, but she's muted. Ms. D'Warte's present. Forte, you were arrested for one count of human trafficking, one count of ludicinous

exhibition on a child, one count of ludicin lascivious battery, and one one count of interference with custody. So I will appoint the public defender's office for you. So I'm ordering that you stay away from the 15 year, 15 year old child whose initials are BP. No contact with that alleged victim either directly, indirectly in person in writing by telephone or through third parties. And no contact with the victim through social media or other electronic means.

You must stay at least 500 feet away from the victim. her home and school in place, her home and school in any place of employment. Do you understand to stay away with him? I had a chance to review the arrest affidavit. I think there's probable cause for everything. And Duarte appears to start crying, putting her face in her hands, as the judge reveals that the most serious charge against her, the human trafficking, means she'll automatically have no bond.

Since count one, human trafficking, if a child is considered a dangerous crime, it's no bond. You're going to have to wait until tomorrow to see a judge. That judge will set a final hearing on the state's motion for pretrial detention. Any further questions you can address with your public defender? The other counts, Judge? The other counts. Count one is no bond. Count two is a second degree felony.

It's $7,500. Count three is a second-degree felony, $7,500. And count four, interference with custody is $2,500. Good days, ma'am. Yeah, you can see her getting very emotional there. And at this point, the judge tries to move on to the next appearance, different case, but Duarte still seems to be agitated. Page two, Christian or Paul?

Judge on Judge on Ms. Dwarte indicates she has a private attorney What's her name again? Janet Valdez-Darnell She's not here. You want me to reset the case for tomorrow? Call your lawyer.

Tell her to go to court tomorrow And you'll have, you'll see, you have the hearing before the division judge on the states. Ms. Corey, if you're not her lawyer, why are you turning it out? She's saying she's a lawyer. Judge, because she can't hear anything you're saying. If she's talking at the same time, she's going to cut off everything and she needs to listen to what you're saying. I can hear. Ma'am, have you hired a private lawyer?

Can you afford to hire a private lawyer? Can I speak? Can you afford to hire a private attorney? She's my best friend. She would do it pro bono. Okay. Let her... The gator.

You need a lawyer on this. I'm a psychologist. I'm a PhD. I will lose my license and my life. I need help. I've never even touched that girl, kiss her. The facts alleged in here are terrible facts. You're facing, was it, a life felony for the human,

that's a first degree felony, the human trafficking. You need an attorney. I'm appointing the public defender's office. If you want your friend to come on pro bono, she can at a later date. You'll see your judge tomorrow. You're freaking out, but you had no problem with the facts alleged in here. It's pretty awful.

It's only probable cause. It's not the trial. Yeah, this is not the time to defend yourself or make kind of these arguments. And Duarte, she's muted again, continues to argue with the public defender and a deputy before she's led away. And you heard there that Duarte says she's a psychologist and she could lose her license to practice medicine because of all of this. So we check the Florida Department of Health's records and it shows that Duarte's psychologist, license as being clear and inactive, and it's our understanding that means that she has a license, but she's not authorized to practice in Florida. She also appears to have an active mental health

counselor license and a registered mental health counselor intern license. That's expired. Now, we didn't find any disciplinary action associated with her licenses, but of course, that could potentially change as Duarte faces very serious charges. And it appears that Duarte's previous encounters with police have all been traffic related. We typed in Duarte's name and state of residence on TruthFinder and in less than a minute, our paid subscription gave us access to court records. Yeah, so law and crime, we partner with TruthFinder. We use it to get details on people involved in our stories. But by the way, even if you don't work in true crime, it can be an excellent resource to give you some peace of mind. It's one of the largest public records search

services in the United States. And with a paid subscription service, you can get access to unlimited reports about almost anyone. And by the way, right now, you can get 50% off of your first month of confidential background reports. Just go to truthfinder.com slash LC sidebar. Okay, I want to get back into this. So I want to dig into Duarte's arrest affidavit. And to do that, I want to bring in trial attorney Jennifer Alcotti, who has experience in the human trafficking field. Jenny, so good to see you. First off, what do you make of this case and what do you make of Duarte's reaction in court in that initial appearance? I think the initial reaction that I have with this case in general right now is honestly, this is a lot more common than I think a lot of people realize. I think with human trafficking,

people associate traffickers to be male, but actually the pimps work together with other women. And that is very common. So I know that the report also said that a man named Jason was her boyfriend. they could have been working together on this trafficking scheme or trafficking ring. Her appearance in court was, I think the judge said it right, that the facts alleged in the case, she had no problem with the things that she had done, but she is very much reacting to the charges that she has now because she got caught. And I think that's just very tragic to see that

somebody who was trafficking a minor is upset at the fact that they're going to prison for something like this, which is, I guess it's, obviously it's terrifying to go to prison, but don't traffic individuals. Well, and look, these are allegations,

right? She hasn't been found guilty yet. They are very serious allegations. And I want to take a closer look at this. And more specifically, police in Miami say happened at this a loft hotel. So let's lay this out, Jenny. The 15-year-old victim allegedly told police last Thursday about an assault that happened just a couple of days before. So when you talk about a witness, really recent event, recollection, very fresh. The arrest affidavit says, quote, the victim walked her dog into the pool area of the

incident location where she met the defendant. The defendant befriended the victim quickly gaining her trust by advising that she was a psychologist. The victim grew comfortable with the defendant and confided in her about issues in her personal life and was told that they had shared life experiences. During the conversation, the defendant offered the victim a marijuana cigarette to smoke. The defendant also bought alcoholic beverages from the hotel's bar and offered them to the victim, but the victim declined drinking the alcohol. During the conversation, the defendant told the victim to come back to her hotel room later that night. Following the conversation, the victim took her dog home and returned to the aloft hotel, where the defendant would again

provide her with marijuana. Now, Jenny, from a defense point of view, is there any argument that or any argument they can make, hey, this 15-year-old came back to the hotel? It was her own volition to do this, or is that not matter? Well, the problem is, it's not a problem. The reason that the law protects minors under the age of 18 is considered a minor is that minors are considered vulnerable. There's the argument that, you know, at the age of 18, that's when their brain fully develops. And so the law does protect minors. So it's a very difficult argument to make. And if she has this mental health training, right, and this level of manipulation, that could hurt her as well. I think that's one of the parts about this is disturbing, but also something

that gives the prosecution a lot of room for too. Absolutely. And I mean, you had mentioned, too, that she has an inactive license, but she does still have that institutional knowledge and that skill set to be able to psychologically manipulate these individuals. And specifically, again, minors, it's very, very tragic to see that. Okay. So now it gets worse. I'm not going to lie to anybody. It gets worse because according to a timeline provided by police, the victim leaves the defendant's hotel room at around 6 a.m. the next morning. And then left and came back several times the next day, and she told police she met two different men who came to Duarte's room, identified only as Pablo and the man that you mentioned Jason. The affidavit states, quote,

the defendant on Wednesday, August 14, 2024, began to take pictures of the victim and send them to Pablo and advised that the victim was 21 years old and willing to have sex with him. The victim told the defendant she was not like that and did not want to engage in sex. The defendant would ignore the victim and continue to insist. Shortly after, Pablo would arrive to the defendant's hotel room where the defendant would have sex with Pablo in front of the victim. Jason, who the victim knows is the defendant's boyfriend, arrived and entered the hotel room.

The defendant began to exit the room in an attempt to leave the victim in the room alone with Jason. The victim advised the defendant that she felt uncomfortable being in the room alone with Jason. The defendant then pushed the victim back inside of the room, told her to stay and make Jason feel good and close the hotel as she exited. Then the victim says that she went to the bathroom to try to play on her phone, but eventually came back out and she says when she did that, according to her, Jason was exposing himself and then forced her to perform a sex act on him. Jenny, these feel like concrete allegations or very, you know,

systematic allegations of sex trafficking here right absolutely i mean this is very very typical signs of human trafficking she took she took her to a hotel which 87 percent of human trafficking occurs in hotels um she started taking pictures of the individual to post advertisements to sell um the minor for sex um she brought a man to the room um and individuals were coming in and out to be able to um almost a clandestine crime occurring. So this is a very systematic and typical sign of human trafficking. Now, according to this victim, Duarte would exchange sex for drugs to satisfy this addiction. She reportedly offered the victim marijuana repeatedly to get her to come back to the hotel. And the affidavit states, quote, the defendant has knowledge that the victim is a

minor. The victim overheard the defendant state to Jason. She's 15. Can you believe that so if we're talking about a knowledge component there you go very serious point of evidence there goes on to state quote in her statement to law enforcement the victim described the defendant by first middle and last name age and provided photographs and video of the defendant the victim's mother spoke with law enforcement officers and stated that she did not consent to the victim going to the defendant's hotel room now miami police say they went to make contact with dwarte on an unrelated matter and took her to the miami dade police department for an interview and quote upon arrival, this detective observed the defendant acting belligerent and being uncooperative.

The defendant appeared to be under the influence of unknown narcotics. Therefore, this detective determined the interview could not be conducted. Judge Glazer found problem cause to charge Duarte with human trafficking, lewd and lascivious exhibition on a child under 16, lewd in lascivious battery, and interference with custody. So, Jenny, the fact, I mean, there's so many different factors to this, but what stands out to you as the strongest piece of evidence is it unfortunately going to be the testimony of the account of this young girl absolutely i think the testimony is going to be a big one

um honestly the photographs of the advertisements i think would be another one i mean also to the fact that the victim is a minor is a big big piece as well in order to help um the prosecution here um but i think the testimony and probably the advertisements would be the two biggest pieces of evidence and if there were any witnesses at the pool and any communication right the communications between her and these other individuals and the taking of the photographs too any possible defense here for her i mean it's still early we don't have all the facts we don't have all the details you haven't seen the evidence but any what are typical defenses in these kinds of cases so specifically for her what the defense could be is that she was forced to do this by jason um typically

what happens in typical sex trafficking cases. What you have is something known as the bottom. And that is a woman who is being forced by the main head pimp to recruit other individuals to be to be trafficked for the Johns. So that could be the defense that she was forced. What would still happen, though, is it would just be a lesser crime. It's not that she would get out of this at all. Or some sort of deal, plea deal would be worked out. Correct. Right. But I can't imagine any situation. Either she takes a deal or goes to trial and is convicted that she doesn't see the inside of a prison cell. absolutely absolutely by the way i have to say i'm going back to the fact that she was apparently on narcotics and they couldn't conduct an interview one of the key areas of any defense attorney is

was were her rights violated did she say things that she shouldn't have said because she was pressured by law enforcement but not here right if they realized that she wasn't under the that she wasn't in the proper state of mind they knew not to conduct an interview because that could have actually backfired right absolutely i think they were actually that they were very very, very knowledgeable with being able to recognize that as well. And they did nothing wrong in this situation. Everything that was that coincided after this was done properly. So it's going to be a really hard case for the defense. And by the way, she can't use their narcotic defense, right? I mean, if she's voluntarily ingesting drugs, that can't be used in any sort of way to mitigate the

circumstances here. Correct. Exactly. Okay. I want to talk, end on this point. There's something else that's interesting to note. So we didn't find any disciplinary action that was associated with Dorothe's psychology licenses. We did find, though, an order from the Florida Education Practices Commission from back in 2006 that denied her application for a teaching certificate. So in a letter included in that order, the commission states, quote, as you know, the teacher panel of the Education Practices Commission reviewed the matter pending against you. Based upon the panel's consideration of this matter and upon the panel's acceptance of your settlement agreement, you are hereby reprimanded. This panel, composed of your peers, believes that as a teacher, you're required to exercise a measure of leadership beyond reproach.

By your actions, you have lessened the reputation of all who practiced our profession. The profession cannot condone your actions, nor can the public who employ us. And in the document's notice of reasons, it reads, quote, honor about February 11, 2002, applicant, attempted to leave a department store without paying for approximately $110 worth of merchandise in her possession. Applicant was arrested in charge with pettet theft. Honor about August 27, 2002, applicant pled no lo contende to the charge and the court withheld adjudication of guilt. So, Jenny, I don't know if that's going to play into any kind of criminal trial. I don't know if that evidence would actually be relevant, maybe, but I just think that adds a different element

to this story, a more sinister element of this story. story when you look at her background, her qualifications, and if you take the allegations as true, that she was in a position of trust and maybe abused that position, again, to get what she wanted here. That's the allegations. But what do you make of those that her past history? I think what's interesting is that it was a theft charge too, which is a crime of dishonesty. And in a criminal case, that could come in. I think the more powerful issue here is that she was a psychologist, even though she is a psychologist, even though she's inactive.

She does have that ability to mentally manipulate somebody. And it's apparent, too, in human trafficking that you go after individuals that are vulnerable. She recognized that this minor was vulnerable, and she preyed on her. And that is something that is very common. And having that heightened level of skill set, to be able to know how to manipulate is just going to be very, very difficult for defense. But the theft crime could come in as a crime of dishonesty. So it could be used to her favor.

If she takes a stand, right? Exactly. Right, right. She can be cross-examined about that. Right now, the Miami-Dade County court website still shows a public defender assigned to Duarte's case. She's expected back in court later this week for a new pretrial detention hearing and her arraignment is scheduled for September 9th. Jenny Alcotti, great to see you.

Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you, Jesse. So after we did our interview with Jenny, we got some news. Police announced that they have arrested that apparent Jason, this boyfriend of Dwarte, that we spoke of, 46-year-old Jason Mojica. He was already in custody at the Turner-Gilford Knight Correctional Center on a different case, but now he's been arrested on a slew of new charges, charges of sexual battery of a victim that was 12 to 17 years old. lewd and lascivious battery, and interference with custody.

We'll, of course, continue to follow this case and see what happens next. All right, everybody, that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.