Update, 9:53 a.m.: The jury trial for Mercedes Carrera and Jason Whitney finally has a date: September 30, 2019.
The defendants entered not guilty pleas. Judge Katrina West set a pre-trial date for September 13, another date September 27 and the actual jury trial for September 30.
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — As the case against adult performer Mercedes Carrera and her husband Jason Whitney finally enters its actual trial phase, revised charges after a preliminary hearing show that San Bernardino County District Attorney Brianne Durose has quietly dropped drugs and guns charges against the couple.
The DA, however, has added three more sexual abuse charges against each of them after the preliminary hearing.
XBIZ is at the Rancho Cucamonga house awaiting the “arraignment on information” hearing to file the revised charges.
The original February charges, also filed by DA Durose, were 18, nine for each defendant. The first charge, carrying a possible sentence of 25 to life, was for “sexual intercourse or sodomy with child 10 years old or younger.” Charges 2-8 were all for “oral copulation or sexual penetration with child 10 years old or younger,” with a possible sentence of 15 to life. The 9th charge was for “possession of a controlled substance with a firearm.”
After over six months of delays, as XBIZ reported, Carrera and Whitney finally had their preliminary hearing to decide whether the case would move to trial on August 8.
The DA chose the strategy of a “hearsay” testimony — the preliminary hearing consisting of calling as witnesses two policemen. The first one was Officer Steve Theis, formerly of the Twin Peaks police department and now with the Yucaipa Police Department. While at Twin Peaks PD, the department received the original tip that a minor had been molested and Theis was dispatched to the nearby home of Barry Hathaway on January 31.
Hathaway has a daughter from a previous relationship with Carrera, who is the single minor mentioned in the current charges, even though Rancho Cucamonga PD detective Donald Patton, who arrested Carrera and Whitney, has repeatedly insisted that “based on the evidence,” he believes “there are other victims.”
The preliminary hearing established that Hathaway told officer Theis before the interview with the minor that he and Carrera were embroiled in a custody dispute over their daughter.
With Officer Theis on the stand, DA Durose played the over-an-hour-long recording of the interview Theis conducted with the minor on January 31, with only her father present. That explicit interview at Hathaway’s lakeside property, which occurred without a social worker or child psychologist present, appears to be the only evidence for the Rancho Cucamonga police department to raid Carrera and Whitney’s home less than 24 hours later.
According to the preliminary hearing testimony, Hathaway cooperated with the raid, texting Carrera that he was outside returning the minor to make the adult performer walk out of her house, where she was swarmed by Rancho Cucamonga police led by Detective Patton.
Detective Patton was the second hearsay witness called by DA Durose on August 8. Patton described the raid, and the preliminary hearing judge questioned the weapons charge, since the two 9mm. pistols found in the Carrera-Whitney home were not loaded.
During the preliminary hearing, the judge did not mention the drugs component of the 9th charge against the defendants. But the revised charges for the actual trial completely omit anything but the sexual abuse charges.
The other important change is that, based on the recording of Thais interview with the minor that was played earlier this month, there are now eleven sexual abuse charges against each defendant.
These include the original single “sexual intercourse or sodomy with child 10 years old or younger” charge (25 to life), which was the subject of the only substantial back-and-forth during the preliminary hearing between the DA, the defense and the judge.
The defense argued that minor explicitly stated during the interview that she had not been abused in that manner, but the DA cited cases insisting that some things the minor had described were consistent with the legal definition of “sexual intercourse or sodomy.” The DA even argued that the minor’s allegation that Carrera had given her a vibrator was an example of penetration.
Instead of the original seven charges for “oral copulation or sexual penetration with child 10 years old or younger” (15 to life), the revised charges now include 10 individual “oral copulation and sexual penetration” charges against each member of the couple.
The minor explicitly said that neither Carrera nor Whitney had abused her individually, but only as a couple, leading to the identical charges for each of them for either committing the act or “aiding and abetting.”
The minor alleged that about “five or six” instances of molestation (or “cuddles,” as she and Officer Thais called them during the interview) occurred over a few months (the timeline is vague) before the 2018 holidays.
It is still not clear why the original and the revised charges both mention “on or about July 6, 2017” as the beginning of the sexual assault.
Repeated attempts by XBIZ over the last four months to speak with DA Durose have been unsuccessful. The preliminary hearing judge also denied a motion to “permit media coverage” by XBIZ from the courtroom without further explanation.
This is an ongoing story. XBIZ will continue updating this article through the hearing, so please refresh throughout the day.
For more of XBIZ's coverage of the Carrera case, click here.