Aberdeen, SD: Somali refugee sentenced to 3 years
for attempted sexual assault of a mentally challenged woman, by Ann Corcoran 3/28/17
When we first reported this case, it was learned through an apparent miscommunication by
lawyers for the defendant that he had only arrived in the country the week
before the incident occurred in July of last year. Now we learn he was a wandering Somali who had
first been resettled in Idaho three years ago and had drifted from state to
state ever since.
Before this case hit the news we had
heard about the mayor there supporting the proposed opening of a direct
resettlement site in Aberdeen and that citizens were upset. Click here for our first story on Aberdeen. I then visited the
city during my travels throughout the Midwest and West last summer where I was
mostly interested in seeing meatpacking towns that were being changed with the
influx of refugee laborers.
Here is what happened in an Aberdeen court yesterday, from
Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily: Liban Mohamed, a 39-year-old Somali refugee living
in Aberdeen, South Dakota, was sentenced Monday to three years for attempting
to sexually assault a severely mentally handicapped woman at a group home.
Speaking through an interpreter,
Mohamed said he didn’t know English. Yet, he was seen communicating with his
lawyer in English.
Judge Richard Summers sentenced Mohamed to five years, with two years
suspended for a total of three years and gave him credit for time served of 228
days. Mohamed is not a U.S. citizen, but he has been living in the United
States on a green card. [I assume there was no order for deportation after he finishes
his sentence, will he be wandering to your state in three short years?—ed]
The incident happened
July 30, 2016, just three days after Mohamed had arrived in Aberdeen to work at
the Demkota Ranch beef-processing plant. He’d been in the country for about
three years at that point, having been first resettled in Idaho. He then moved
to Missouri, Kansas and on to South Dakota.
It’s not the only case recently of a Somali refugee running afoul of
the law. Another man from Somalia, 24-year-old Abdirhman Noor, was charged with
the attempted murder of two men on July 8, 2016, outside the Foxridge
Apartments in Aberdeen. Noor jumped bail, failing to show up for a pretrial
hearing in February. He has been missing ever since.
Still, the mayor of the small city, Mike Levsen, supports the continued
arrival of refugees, many of whom are put to work in the local meatpacking
plant and at a molded fiberglass plant.
The Liban Mohamed case was also
notable for the way it was handled by the local media in and around Aberdeen.
Despite the facts – that a helpless
woman was preyed upon by a refugee who had arrived in town just days earlier –
coverage by the local newspaper, the Aberdeen News American, and local TV was
non-existent until WND brought it to light.
When it did finally report the
story, the News American refused to tell its readers that the perpetrator,
Mohamed, was a refugee and buried the story on page 3.
The Brown County Sheriff’s Office
refused to give WND a mugshot of Mohamed. There are many more
details. Continue reading here.
I wonder what his arrest, his legal
counsel, his interpreters and his incarceration is costing the taxpayers of
South Dakota? So much for refugees adding to local economies!
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