ROCKVILLE, Md. — A second child whom Maryland rape suspect Mahamu Kanneh was accused of molesting was 18 months old, according to case documents uncovered Tuesday.
Kanneh was indicted in December 2005 on nine counts of rape, sex abuse and child abuse related to allegations involving Kanneh's two nieces. But 2 1/2 years later — last Tuesday — a judge dismissed his case on the grounds that his rights to a speedy trial had been violated.
The case was complicated further because Kanneh spoke a Liberian dialect, Vai. He also spoke English, but a court-appointed psychologist who interviewed him recommended that Kanneh should have an interpreter, and the court agreed. However, interpreters were hard to come by:
Loretta Knight, a clerk with the court system in Montgomery County, Md., has said she had been unable to find an interpreter to stay on the case, even after an exhaustive search that included the Liberian Embassy and courts in 47 states.
On July 17, however, an interpreter was in the court translating the proceedings for Kanneh when Montgomery County Circuit Judge Katherine Savage dismissed Kanneh's case only days before it was set to go to trial. More MagazineLane.com
