WORLD In Menendez saga, prostitute points to wealthy Dominican politician as

WORLD In Menendez saga, prostitute points to wealthy Dominican politician as sex-party participant 12:22 AM 02/04/2013 993356 DAVID MARTOSKO AND CHARLES C. JOHNSON Contributor SEE ALL ARTICLES SEND EMAIL SUBSCRIBE TO RSS A Dominican prostitute’s firsthand account of sex parties allegedly attended by New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez refers specifically to another participant: Vinicio “Vinicito” Castillo Seman, the scion of a prominent Dominican political family who serves as a lawyer for his cousin, Dr. Salomon Melgen, in the Caribbean nation. Vinicito, she wrote, “invents things [to do] with the young girls, and then forces them to do the same things with the doctor’s friend” — Sen. Menendez. The doctor, Melgen, is the Democratic donor whose private jet ferried Menendez to the Dominican Republic on several occasions, and at whose resort home the sex parties allegedly occurred. At least one of the women allegedly involved has said she was younger than 18 when she first had sex with Sen. Menendez. In her account, sent via email on April 21, 2012 to the liberal advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the prostitute identified “Vinicito” by name as a participant, along with Melgen and Menendez. The Daily Caller published an English translation of that email on January 31. (RELATED: Dominican prostitute says Menendez ‘likes the youngest and newest girls’) Vinicito is the chief strategist for Fuerza Nacional Progresista, a far-right-wing Dominican political party. His father, Marino Vinicio “Vincho” Castillo Rodriguez, is the party’s president and a Dominican attorney known for his hard-line position against narcotics traffickers as president of the National Council on Drugs. Only In Australia! - These 17 Things Will Shock You TravelTips4Life 10 Cars You Should Avoid Buying Carophile Calling For Major Gains In The Pot Stocks TalkMarkets by TaboolaSponsored Links The son also figured in an email sent to CREW by Peter Williams, a whistle-blower who first brought the prostitution allegations against Sen. Menendez to the group’s attention on April 9, 2012. “During the years I’ve been visiting the Dominican Republic, I met a family where unfortunately two girls are involved in prostitution,” Williams wrote. “One of them told me many stories about her good and bad experiences in this issue. She told me about the frequent trips by yacht, where Senator Menendez, Doctor Melgen and one of Vinicio Castillo’s sons, participate. This yacht belongs to Vinicio Castillo’s son and … is in Casa de Campos’s Marin[a].” Williams, who may be using an alias, sent TheDC his collection of emails and records on January 13 from what appeared to be an Internet address in Mexico, a day before publishing them online. (RELATED: TheDC’s complete coverage of Bob Menendez) “It was during some yacht outings that I realized I needed to get out of there,” the young prostitute wrote in one email included in that collection, “because these people are so important and they do whatever they want with whomever they want.” “Vinicito was there, who goes to many of the doctor’s functions and invents things [to do] with the young girls, and then forces them to do the same things with the doctor’s friend. And he really liked it and wanted to take them to another place, but I don’t know where. They threatened those girls and told them to not talk, and that they couldn’t leave.” “The doctor’s friend” likely refers to Sen. Menendez. Earlier in the same email, she called him Melgen’s “good friend [who] is very important in the United States.” In an April 28 email to CREW about the sex parties, the same woman said that “we women are very mistreated,” especially “the younger ones between 16 and 18 years old.” (RELATED: Menendez’s alleged Dominican prostitution spree coincided with crusade against prostitution in Cuba)