We knew this was coming.
As Hip-Hop Wired previously reported, 22 year-old Haitian immigrant Guerdwich Montimere was arrested last week and caused his team to forfeit their season after it was discovered he was not 16 year-old Jerry Joseph as he had everyone fooled.
Now the 22 year-old man is being charged with sexual assault after a teenage girl reported that she had sex with Montimere last summer when she thought he was a teenager.
According to The Associated Press, Guerdwich Montimer was arrested for the third time in four days, this time after a 16-year-old girl in Odessa told police and school district officials she had sex with him at a home in August when she thought he was 15-year-old Jerry Joseph, said Odessa police Cpl. Sherrie Carruth.
The con artist is now being held on a $50-thousand bond
As previously reported, Montimere told locals that he was an orphan who was living with his brother in a college dorm, after being a victim of the devastating Haitian earthquake; was actually a former high school superstar who graduated from a high school in Florida.
The discovery came from Montimere’s former coach who first spotted the player at an event last month. Coach Vives told the South Florida Sun Sentinel,
“I was hoping I was wrong because he was one of our kids. He grew up in our system. He played with us and you don’t want any of your kids to go in the wrong direction in any way. That’s why I’m sad. But what’s right is right. He can’t go around impersonating a 16-year old kid. He can’t go living his youth all over again.”
Montimer was originally arrested Tuesday on a misdemeanor charge of failure to identify himself to a police officer, and school officials said he admitted that he wasn’t Joseph. He was arrested again Thursday on a third-degree felony charge of tampering with a government document.
A jail official said Friday there was no information about whether Montimer had an attorney. The sexual assault charge, a second-degree felony, carries a sentence of two to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.
Based on information provided by the girl, investigators determined Montimer “intentionally and knowingly engaged in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old juvenile and portrayed himself to be 15 years old when he was actually 21 years of age,” Carruth, the Odessa police official, said in a statement.
Permian High School made the state basketball playoffs with Joseph helping lead the way as a sophomore star. Questions arose after the season, and Joseph was initially cleared by immigration authorities and allowed to return to the school.
The investigation continued, and a fingerprint from a passport found in his room matched one taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after the allegations surfaced, according to an affidavit. School officials said Montimer confessed after he was confronted with the new evidence.
His last name has been widely reported as Montimere, including by The Associated Press, but an affidavit released Thursday had several references to official documentation with Montimer, the spelling used by Odessa police.
Was it really worth it son…I guess you’ll have time to really think about it now.
