If you’re on Facebook in South Dakota, you’ve likely seen the post from on-line news website World Net Daily come across your newsfeed which is featuring an article coming out of Aberdeen, South Dakota about a Somalian refugee who was convicted of molesting a disabled person with limited communication abilities:
Liban Mohamed, 39, was in the United States for only about a week when he tried to force himself on a 31-year-old woman with severe disabilities. He is not a U.S. citizen, but whether he will be deported in the wake of his conviction remains unclear.
The trial for Mohamed was held just a few days before Christmas and not a word of the conviction has made it into the local media, residents of Aberdeen told WND on Tuesday.
Mohamed speaks no English and required two interpreters at trial, according to the state’s attorney who prosecuted the case.
“I do know he lived in Aberdeen,” prosecutor Christopher White told WND. “The day that it happened, he was staying at the White House Inn hotel in Aberdeen. What came out at trial, in his defense attorney’s opening statement, was that he arrived in Aberdeen that day and had only been in the United States for approximately a week, and he had come to work at the beef plant in Aberdeen. But I don’t know if he had already started working or was about to start work there.”
Mohamed mentioned to law enforcement that he had been hired on at the Demkota Ranch beef plant, White said.
WND called the executive editor of Aberdeen’s daily newspaper, the American News, and asked why nothing has been reported on the crime committed by Mohamed. He said he had no knowledge of Mohamed’s arrest, trial or conviction.
and..
Since the case of Liban Mohamed garnered no media attention, residents are wondering how many other crimes by refugees may have been shielded from public view in Aberdeen and Huron.
According to court records obtained by WND, Mohamed was arrested July 30 and indicted by a grand jury on Aug. 15. The jury was seated on Monday, Dec. 19, and the trial was held Tuesday, Dec. 20.
The main thrust of the story, published yesterday, is that the story had been ignored or buried by the Aberdeen American News, particularly when it came to the part mentioning his status as a refugee.
Interestingly enough, within 8 hours after the story “about their ignoring the story” hit the WND website, the Aberdeen American News only then got around to covering the attempted sexual assault which took place last summer. As you can see by this news clip which was shared on-line.
But one point in the belated coverage seems to be missing, one that particularly goes to the heart of the issue that World Net Daily is offering as their main critique of the Aberdeen American – There is utterly no reference in the story that the person who molested the disabled woman was a Somalian refugee who had been in the country for a week.
As indicated above, WND noted in their story that “residents are wondering how many other crimes by refugees may have been shielded from public view in Aberdeen and Huron.”
With the only mention of the attempted molestation of a disabled woman by the refugee newly placed in the community coming hours after an article critical of their non-coverage of the crime, it’s hard to categorize the WND outrage as just more fake news on Facebook.
The fact that the Aberdeen American News still omitted facts of the story after being publicly excoriated for it only gives credence to accusations that news coverage of crimes being committed by refugees in the community are possibly being shielded from public view.
Greenfield, Novstrup, Kaiser, Dennert, Greenfield and Tulson need to get together and lead on a bill that they cosponsor. The people of Aberdeen don’t need Disanto trying to carry this water.
A South Dakota Legislative bill for what? Can you be more specific?
This is exactly the kind of situation that someone who is politically ambitious will try to hijack. Lynn Disanto is exactly the kind of person that comes to mind.
It’s hard to imagine a better situation for the people of Aberdeen than for them to have representation like Greenfield and Novstrup will act to address this situation and most likely pull in the Attorney General.
If there needs to be legislation and it comes from someone who doesn’t represent brown county then you are saying Brown co legislators are weak or the legislation is not needed.
I would guess Kaiser would hold most sway being a cop.
Assuming that the AAN is every bit as influential as the esteemed Brookings Register, having that story in the newspaper in a timely fashion would have alerted seven or eight additional people to the situation.
Sure, they shouldn’t have hidden it but an informed citizen should not rely on the dead tree press to keep informed. Much less the small-town dead-tree press. Excellent for cub scout photo ops, 4H archery standings, and the latest spaghetti fund raiser. Not so much on “news”.
Fled
Chris White is as good of an attorney as they come.
?
Where’s Angela on coverage of this story?
If this had been a crime against a Muslim, it would have been all over the front page locally and nationally and cited as a hate crime.
Muslims get all the breaks.
Novstrup and Greenfield would be ideal people to carry this bill. Both are respected in Aberdeen.
They would also keep this from becoming a political football. They are statesman.
What is the nature of a bill that is to be carried?
http://sdlegislature.gov/Legislative_Session/Bills/Bill.aspx?Bill=119&Session=2016
One can criticize the AAN for not mentioning the refugee status of the defendant in its article, but implying that crimes by refugees are being covered up by the press is a little much. It is very possible that the AAN was not aware of the case. Aberdeen, like every other big town, has sexual assault cases all the time. The article isn’t clear about the actual charge, but from the maximum sentence that is possible, it appears to be a low level felony. Most papers don’t run stories about low level felonies every step of the way.
Where is the fear mongering we deserve and have come to expect from our media? More outrage please!!
I’m thinking this bill is not needed especially with President Trump and actually counter-productive. We are going to have a lot less refugees under the act BUT those we do probably need to be settled/dealt with in a timely manner. Waiting for the Legislature to meet is an unnecessary delay.
Also, the Legislature is not to micro-manage every aspect of State Government. Why don’t we just have the Legislature endorse all people released on parole/probation? Why don’t we have the Legislature approve adoptions and foster care assignments? Why don’t we have the Legislature approve school expulsions? Each one of these areas result in a lot more crime victims than that from refugees.
And, while we are at it, I’d like to have the legislature the timing of highway construction projects that run through the City of Sioux Falls.
The Legislature’s job is to set by law the parameters of what can and cannot be done and fund (or not fund) certain activities. The Executive Branch’s job is then to execute within the constraints of the law and funding. Once the Legislature starts micro-managing they will have insufficient time to do a good job legislating and get bogged down in minutiae.
I get this is a hot-button issue but it is a precedent that needs to be nipped lest we have minor matters being bogged down.
WND says the victim was 31, AAN say 16?
31
AAN is wrong.
The victim is 31.
Even when they do report it’s sloppy.
Why are we allowing this to happen in South Dakota?
I was sure Sioux Falls’ very own obese-deaf-lesbian-love-triangle-chainsaw-murder would garner national media attention but it didn’t. Nancy Grace should have covered that trial.
So the obvious is missing here…the man had a defense saying something like ” it is done in his country” What???This is also a culture clash and a morals clash. We cannot absorb individuals who ideologically disrespect American women. Is a refugee a more protected class of individual than a disabled South Dakotan? Stop the dishonest media across the state from igoring the potential problems and actual problems….No one yet mentioned can run this bill nor argue it successfully. LSS and Catholic Charities and Tim Jurgens are responsible.
http://mobile.wnd.com/2017/01/u-s-newspaper-still-hiding-sex-offenders-identity-as-somali-refugee/
2nd article tells of citizens visit on Oct.3 to Atty General office. What did he know? Why keep it covered ahead of elections as this news would have affected Minnesota elections also.http://mobile.wnd.com/2017/01/u-s-newspaper-still-hiding-sex-offenders-identity-as-somali-refugee/
Maybe the offender is not a refugee but instead an undocumented alien? What is the status of this grown man? How did he get here? Who brought him here? He was in Abetween one day?
This all falls down to US Congress and Senate not doing a darn thing to enfoce immigration with the president,
I was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota and went to college in Aberdeen. It is embarrassing to see what the Aberdeen American News is doing for the citizens of Aberdeen. SHAME!!!