Feds forced to dismiss charge against accused rapist
A martial arts instructor who fled to the Middle East nearly a quarter-century ago after he was accused of raping an 11-year-old student is now free on bond after federal authorities abruptly dismissed a passport fraud charge against him.
Just three days after mounting a case for the continued jailing of Jahangir John Shafighi on a charge of lying to renew his U.S. passport while on the lam, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bart Slabbekorn filed a motion to drop the charge.
The prosecutor said in his motion that further probing cast doubt on the government’s case. He did not elaborate.
“The United States continued its post-indictment investigation and review of the supporting facts and evidence and, based on newly discovered information, concludes the evidence is insufficient to proceed,” Slabbekorn said.
Shafighi, a 55-year-old civil engineer, was attending graduate school at the University of Tennessee and operating a martial arts school for children when, in 1992, he allegedly raped and fondled an 11-year-old student over an eight-month period.
He was indicted in 1994, arrested and posted a $30,000 bond. He then fled to Iran. He twice renewed his passport at American embassies in the Middle East. Shafighi was accused in the federal case of lying about whether he was a fugitive in a 2007 passport renewal application. His passport was renewed.
Last May, the U.S. Marshals Service arrested him in Atlanta as he disembarked from a plane from Mexico. It’s not clear how marshals knew he would be arriving in Atlanta.
The sole basis of the federal charge is a question on the passport renewal form and Shafighi’s answer to it. The question routinely appears in the document but renewal forms are updated on occasion. If the question was inadvertently left from the 2007 version, then Slabbekorn could not make a case of passport fraud. The law would require him to seek a dismissal.
That means Shafighi, who had been jailed in the federal case, is free under a $350,000 bond set by Knox County Criminal Court Judge Bob McGee at the urging of defense attorney Gregory P. Isaacs. Unlike in the federal system, the accused in state courts are entitled to bond, whether they can afford to post it or not, even if, like Shafighi, they were on the lam.
Knox County Assistant District Attorney General Joanie Stewart has fought to keep Shafighi locked up on the rape indictment pending trial, but Isaacs convinced McGee to use ankle monitoring and house arrest in addition to bond.
Shafighi has homes in Iran, Canada and the United Arab Emirates, runs a construction business in Toronto and heads up a nonprofit in Iran on sustainable building practices. He posted the $350,000 bond, and Isaacs has said his wife is now renting a home in Knoxville awaiting the trial.
But U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton had refused - at Slabbekorn’s urging - to grant Shafighi freedom in the federal case. Slabbekorn argued Shafighi had no cause to stick around for trial either in the federal case or the rape indictment.
With the dismissal of the federal charges, Stewart is making another run at putting Shafighi behind bars to guarantee he will show up at trial in the rape case this time around. A hearing is set Tuesday.
Isaacs contends in a response that Stewart has no legal justification for asking McGee to boost or revoke Shafighi’s bond.
“Simply put, although the state does not like the fact that the United States dismissed a case against Mr. Shafighi for lack of evidence, this development does not give rise to any new facts or in any way justifies the punitive request to unlawfully deny John Shafighi bond,” Isaacs wrote.
Past coverage:
Knox child rape suspect on lam 23 years denied release
Accused Knoxville rapist on lam for years loses dismissal bid