In a quick and unemotional procedure in Magistrate Court Thursday, veteran V.I. Sen. Adlah “Foncie” Donastorg was formally charged for allegedly assaulting and threatening to shoot his 19-year-old girlfriend in January.
The seven-term lawmaker and once-gubernatorial contender plead "not guilty" to all five domestic violence-related charges, including two counts of aggravated assault and battery, one count of third-degree assault and two weapons charges.
The charges stem from a domestic dispute on Jan. 28 between Donastorg, a 48-year-old father of three, and a 19-year-old woman identified as K.E., who later changed her story and issued a statement that contradicted almost all of what she told police in her original report on Jan. 29.
The context of domestic violence, however, prevented the V.I. Department of Justice from ignoring the complaint.
Originally scheduled for March 11, the arraignment was postponed until Thursday after prosecutors asked for two weeks to investigate K.E.’s near-total recantation, which included explosive claims that supporters of Gov. John deJongh Jr. offered her a bribe of $150,000 to make a false complaint against Donastorg.
After their two weeks to investigate, however, prosecutors said they found no support for K.E.’s newest claims and listed a second witness to at least one of the assault charges and both weapons charges.
Donastorg said he was instructed by his legal team not to say much Thursday.
"However," the senator continued in a statement issued to the media late in the day, "I will say for anyone that hasn’t heard that I am innocent and that these charges are entirely false."
Donastorg’s attorney, Gordon Rhea, said he was surprised that the V.I. Department of Justice had not changed the charges after K.E. recanted her story.
"The charging on Sen. Donastorg is a tragedy," Rhea said by phone late Thursday.
"I had hopes that the government would see the light and would not proceed with them," he said. "Now that it has decided to go forward with the charges I am looking forward to bringing out the true facts in this case, vindicating the senator’s reputation and proving his innocence."
Speaking for Donastorg at Thursday’s hearing, attorney Darren John-Baptiste waived the senator’s right to a full reading of the charges, which use strong verbs to describe the senator’s alleged actions, including that "he strangled" K.E., "threw her on the ground," "brandished" a pistol and "threatened to shoot" her during their dispute.
Along with the charges, an attached affidavit detailing the original complaint filed by K.E., as well as the ensuing investigation, says Donastorg voluntarily told police that he had an intimate relationship with K.E.
The affidavit is a revised version of the police report used to establish probable cause which details what prosecutors say happened on Jan. 28.
According to K.E., when she arrived unannounced at Donastorg’s Wintberg Estate residence expecting to be able to stay with him for a few days, Donastorg became angry, drew a silver pistol, threatening to shoot her and another woman who had driven her there. The woman, who police identified only as B.J., told police that Donastorg was "going on bad," according to the affidavit.
K.E. originally told police that when the other woman drove off, leaving her with Donastorg, that he then drove her to her mother’s house. When they discovered her mother was not there, a struggle followed in which, according to the charges, Donastorg attempted to strangle her, pushed her out of the car and threw her on the ground, knocking her down again with the vehicle as he drove away.
After Donastorg was arrested on March 4, Judith Bourne, K.E.’s attorney, later published a statement by K.E. saying the charges were a misunderstanding, that Donastorg "did not point a gun at anyone" and that she was pressured and offered $150,000 by LaVelle Campbell and Lesley Comissiong to "bring Adlah down."
Both Campbell and Comissiong have since publically denied the accusations.
In the affidavit attached to the charges Thursday, prosecutors said a follow-up investigation showed no indication of a bribe. They also said that the woman identified as B.J. was a witness to the original assault.
If Donastorg is convicted of the weapons charges alone, he faces five years in prison.
At his arraignment Donastorg asked through his attorney for a trial by jury. The case has been assigned to Superior Court Judge Adam Christian. No dates for further hearings were set Thursday.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was changed at 830 p.m. on March 26 to reflect that Superior Court Judge Adam Christian was asigned the case, not Judge Brenda Hollar as originally reported.
