AFFIDAVIT OF CHARLENE ELIZABETH RHODES

 

I, Charlene Elizabeth Rhodes, of 16289 W. Summerfield Rd., Post Falls, ID, 83854, being duly sworn, make the following statements:

1. My mother’s name is Virginia McClaughry. My step-father’s name is Michael McClaughry. From about the age of 18 months until August 20, 2000, I lived with my mother and step-father.

1. On or about September of 2000, I started attending college at Cornish College of the Arts, 710 E. Roy Street, Seattle, WA, 98102. Consequently, I was living in Seattle, WA for about 9 months out of the year in order to attend college.

2. On or about November of 2001, I first met and made acquaintance with George and Amanda Benavides, hereinafter referred to as George and Amanda, who reside at 3825 191st Place SW, Lynnwood, WA, 98036.

3. Since on or about September of 2002, I have been residing off and on in the residence of George and Amanda at their residence.

4. During the course of my relationship with George, we engaged in sexual relationships off and on for about 17 months, even though throughout this time period George represented himself as being married to Amanda. The aforementioned sexual relationship between George and myself terminated on or about the 6th of August, 2003.

5. During the course of my relationship with George, there were times when he physically struck me. Full details of these events will be covered in a subsequent affidavit.

6. My aforementioned step-father owns a website called www.hasi.ws. While I was attending college in Seattle I kept a personal journal which documents, among other things, my life experiences with George and his family at the time. Excerpts from this aforementioned personal journal are posted at my step-father’s aforementioned website. The information from my aforementioned personal journal, concerning George and family, has been available at my step-father’s aforementioned website for over 6 months. George and I read the information posted at my step-father’s aforementioned website at least 4 months ago, on or about April, 2003.

7. My mother made a post to the Seattle Salsa (Seasalsa) Mailing List on June 22, 2003, which linked to the aforementioned documentation on my step-father’s aforementioned website.

8.On August 20, 2003, Amanda received a call from her son, Henry Cantarero (stage name- Rico Bravo Jr.). Henry Cantarero was very upset about the aforementioned documentation of my sexual relationship with both him and George which he alleges was

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referred to him from numerous sources. As I have stated herein above, it is the truth that I have had sexual relationships with both Henry Cantarero, and George during the time periods specified by myself herein.

9. On August 20, 2003 at about midnight, George, Amanda, and myself were in the basement of their aforementioned residence. George requested that I write a written statement that night, hereinafter called the written statement, denying the aforementioned information posted at my step-father’s aforementioned website concerning George, Henry Cantarero, and myself. George continued pushing this request for about an hour, but I told him that I was tired and so I went to sleep.

10. On August 21, 2003, at about 12:30PM, George again approached me on the subject saying, “Are you ready to write that thing?” I said yes, but neither of us made any move to go do it. Then we started watching TV for about an hour, until George received a call from Amanda on his cell phone. George went to his bedroom to talk to Amanda. I went to the bathroom, which is right by George and Amanda’s bedroom, and I could hear parts of their conversation, and I heard George asking Amanda who she’d been talking to, and he was yelling a lot at her. When George came back out into the living room, he really started pushing that I needed to write the written statement. I asked George what Amanda had said to him. George said that Amanda said that if I didn’t write the statement, then she would throw both of us out of the house and make his life hell. George and I went down to the basement where his computer is, and I began to type as he paced the room. I had to change what I had written a few times before George was satisfied. George wanted the following certain things to be covered:

A. George wanted me to write into the written statement that what my mother had written about my sexual relationship with Rico Jr. and George in my father’s aforementioned website was not true.

B. George also wanted me to write into the written statement that my mother’s motivation for writing about my sexual relationship with George was that she wanted me back in Idaho and she would stop at nothing to get me there.

C. George also wanted me to put into the written statement all the good things that the Benavides family had done for me and how they had given me a home and had been nothing but a family, and that I was going to continue dancing salsa with them no matter what my mother said.

D. George wanted me to write in the written statement that another dance instructor in Seattle was involved with my Mom to bring his name down. I did not know this for sure, so I didn’t want to write it, but George threatened that if I didn’t write that, then I would have to write that my mother was crazy, which I had already refused to do, so I ended up

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writing about the instructor.

I typed my stage name, Angelina Rose, at the bottom of the written statement that was being required of myself by George, because that is the name the salsa community knows me by. Then George put five spaces under the last paragraph and my name and a line above my name as though it needed a signature, but George never told me anything about having to sign the written statement before I wrote it.

George said before that he was just going to put the aforementioned written statement on the salsa mailing list and give a copy to Amanda. Then George printed it out and told me to sign it. I told George that it didn’t need any signature if he was just sending it on the internet. George said that Amanda wanted my signature on the written statement. I told George that I wasn’t going to sign the written statement no matter what George said because I knew that what I had written into the written statement was all a lie, and that I would be committing perjury if I signed it.

George kept pressuring me to sign the written statement for about 2 hours. George was yelling at the top of his lungs at one moment, and then pretending to cry at another moment, even though there were no tears coming out of his eyes. George was getting into my face and yelling, and physically pushed my two times, very hard. Then George put the written statement on a chair and slammed my face into the chair. I still wouldn’t sign the written statement. Then George picked up an empty Sobe bottle and was standing over me like he was going to hit me with it. I was very scared at this time, and I told George to put the aforementioned Sobe bottle down. George put down the aforementioned Sobe bottle, but then a few minutes later, George called his mom to come down and help talk me into signing the written statement. By this time I was already tired and finally told George that I would only sign the written statement if George promised that Amanda wouldn’t take it to a lawyer. George promised me that the written statement would not be taken to a lawyer, so I signed it. At around 8PM on August 21, 2003, Amanda came home from the gym, and Amanda said that I needed to sign the written statement with my real name, so I did.

8. The only reason I signed the written statement that contained all those untrue statements, is because George was putting me under physical duress and physical threat and I feared for my safety.

9. Because of the aforementioned series of events regarding George coercing me into signing the false statements contained in the written statement, I did not return to George and Amanda’s residence after I went to work on August 22, 2003. I flew to my family in Idaho, and am making this statement from there to retract anything that was written in the previous aforementioned written statement given by myself to George and Amanda.

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10. I make all the foregoing statements herein of my own free will and I am not under any threat, duress, or coercion to do so.

______________________________________

Charlene Elizabeth Rhodes

Subscribed and sworn to before me on this ____ day of August, 2003.

______________________________________

Notary Public for the State of Idaho

My commission expires ____________________.