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Illegal immigrant says he was railroaded for rape

Arthur J Pais

A judge last week declared a mistrial in a rape case after learning that semen found on the victim's bedclothes and pyjamas had not been tested for its DNA content.

Meanwhile, Dyhen Singh, an illegal immigrant from India, charged with the crime says he has been railroaded. Whether he wins the case or not, he is bound to be deported back to India. But if he is found guilty, he will have to serve a few years in an American jail before being sent back to India.

Thirty-year-old Singh, who was returned to the Allegheny county jail, is scheduled to be retried on November 30. He is charged with sexually assaulting a 68-year-old woman who lived in his apartment building on Brown's Lane.

His attorney, Wendy Williams, asked for the mistrial after learning from Assistant District Attorney Eric Fischer that semen found on the victim's pyjama top and bedclothing had not been tested for its DNA content.

Williams said Fischer told her she did not know about the semen until she was thumbing through the court papers on last Tuesday and found a 19-page report from the Allegheny County Crime Lab.

He said Ross detectives who investigated the incident had DNA tests done on blood and semen found on clothing at an apartment Singh shared with two other men, but did not send the semen from the victim's bedclothing to a private laboratory for DNA testing.

Williams said the results of that DNA testing could either exonerate or implicate Singh in the assault and would clearly change the way she defended him. Singh has maintained his innocence.

Williams said two tests on the victim at a hospital showed no evidence she had been raped.

On Monday last, the victim told the jury that she awakened at 0300 hours on May 8, 1997, by a man who beat her face with his fists and then sexually assaulted her. There was no sign of forced entry.

The victim did not see her attacker. She told the police the man had an accent that she believed to be Indian. Using that information, Ross police interviewed three men who lived in her building, including Singh.

The police found bloody shoes and pants at Singh's apartment, which he shared with two other men. They sent this evidence off for DNA testing. The scientific tests showed that the blood samples matched the victim's blood and the pants had semen stains that were consistent with Singh.

Fischer told the judge he took full responsibility for the failure to get the evidence tested.

Singh is being tried on charges of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault and indecent assault.

Singh, who had been working as a dishwasher in several restaurants, will probably remain in jail until his retrial.

Fischer said the Immigration and Naturalisation Service had a detainer on Singh, because it believed he was an illegal alien.

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