Dos Reis Indicted On Sex Charge
By Martin B. Cassidy, Staff Writer
Originally published in the Greenwich Time, May 31, 2002
A federal grand jury indicted a Greenwich man yesterday on a charge he used the Internet to entice a young Danbury girl into sexual activity, but it remains unclear whether homicide charges in the girl's death will be brought by state or federal authorities.
A grand jury seated in U.S. District Court in Hartford charged Saul dos Reis Jr., 25, a Green-wich High School graduate, with one count of using the In-ternet to en-tice, induce or persuade 13-year-old Christina Long to en-gage in illegal sexual activity, U.S. Attorney John A. Danaher III announced yesterday in a prepared statement.
Dos Reis also will be charged with killing the girl, authorities have said. The Danbury News-Times reported Wednesday that Danbury police asked the State's Attorney's Office in Danbury to issue an arrest warrant for Dos Reis, who is being held in the Community Correctional Facility in Bridgeport on the federal charge.
Dos Reis, a Brazilian national, is being held on a federal detainer issued by the U.S. Immigration and Naturali-zation Service, which believes he is in the country illegally. He allegedly overstayed a visa issued to him.
However, state and federal authorities who are investigating the case declined to comment yesterday on a possible arrest.
Authorities have said Dos Reis used e-mail to arrange a meeting with the girl near Danbury Fair mall on May 17. They say he had sex with her that night, killed her late Friday or early Saturday and dumped her body off King Street in Greenwich.
As a result of Dos Reis' indictment on the Internet charge, Danaher will cancel a probable cause hearing scheduled for this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, said his spokeswoman, Delcie Thibault.
An arraignment on the indictment will be scheduled next week, Thibault said.
The probable cause hearing had been scheduled so prosecutors could ask a judge to indict Dos Reis, but the grand jury's action made that unnecessary.
A conviction on the federal Internet charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years, fines and a three-year supervised parole.
Defense attorneys anticipated that prosecutors would seek a grand jury indictment because a probable cause hearing would have required them to present their evidence, said Peter Tilem, one of Dos Reis' White Plains, N.Y., attorneys. Grand juries consider the evidence in secret.
"At a probable cause hearing, we would have been able to hear testimony and ask questions about evidence," Tilem said. "We didn't think they would allow that to happen."
Because the grand jury indictment didn't include homicide charges, Tilem and his partner James Lenihan said they believe the State's Attorney's Office in Danbury will handle that side of the case.
"If the federal government were going to charge him with any type of culpability in Christina Long's death, they would have done it," Lenihan said. "They wouldn't do it piecemeal and call another grand jury."
Danbury police officials would not confirm or deny whether a request for an arrest warrant was made to the State's Attorney's Office, but said state and federal attorneys and investigators are still discussing who would be able to more successfully prosecute Dos Reis on homicide charges.
"They are working together to decide in which venue they have the best chance," Detective Capt. Mitchell Weston said.
Weston also confirmed that Danbury police were interviewing a Greenwich woman regarding Dos Reis, but declined to detail the substance of their interviews.
"It will go toward illustrating his character," Weston said.
At next week's arraignment, Tilem plans to enter a motion for the defense to see evidence held by the U.S. Attorney's Office on the Internet charge, including Dos Reis' alleged statements to police and records of his e-mail correspondence with Christina.
The request will not apply to evidence held by the state.
"Until the state gets involved and bring charges, they're not obligated to give us anything," Lenihan said.
