'Family Friend' Accused of Hiding Girl to Face Trial

A Bethlehem woman testified Tuesday that she never would have called police to report her 16-year-old great niece missing had she realized she was with a “family friend” who is now in prison awaiting trial.

Speaking on a witness stand through a Spanish interpreter, Milagros Amparo, said she has known Maximo Nunez for 10 years and described him as “a hard worker” and “a good person.”

“If I thought it was him, I wouldn’t have called the police,” Amparo said.

But Nunez, 46, of Trenton, N.J., who is charged with concealing the whereabouts of a child and obstruction of justice, had his case bound over for Northampton County Court as a result of the preliminary hearing. District Judge James Stocklas, substituting for District Judge Patricia Romig-Passaro, ruled there was enough evidence against Nunez for the case to go to trial.

Northampton County Assistant District Attorney Lara Kash painted a much different picture of Nunez, who she said has a record of prior criminal activity in New York, New Jersey and Florida.

At her urging, Stocklas agreed to keep Nunez’s bail at $100,000.

Nunez is accused of keeping the girl away from Amparo, her legal guardian, for four or five days after her disappearance on April 17.

“I was nervous and I was desperate,” said Amparo. “I didn’t know where she was and that’s why I called the police.”

She said she had no idea that her great niece might have been with Nunez, who visited her twice while the girl was missing. Amparo testified that Nunez was not given permission by her to care for the girl.

But according to Amparo’s testimony, the girl’s father, who lives in the Dominican Republic, gave out a telephone number to help find the girl. It turned out to be Nunez’s cell phone.

At one point, while the girl was still missing, police made telephone contact with Nunez and the girl, who told them they were in the Bronx, N.Y., according to the testimony of Bethlehem police Officer Jeffrey Fehr.

Fehr testified that he asked Nunez to bring the girl back home to Bethlehem and Nunez replied that that was up to the girl.

On April 19, the Bethlehem Police Department put out a public call—through its blog—to help find Nunez and the girl.

Amparo testified that after she came home, her great niece told her that she ran away because her father wants her to move to be with him in Santo Domingo and she doesn’t want to go. The girl’s mother is currently incarcerated.