By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
TAYLOR — In lieu of a preliminary examination of evidence in district court, a 23-year-old man will be charged next week in circuit court with the sexual assault of a14-year-old girl.
According to court records, defense counsel waived a preliminary exam that had been scheduled for Wednesday, and Hassan Kamel Mougnieh of Dearborn will be arraigned on June 16 in Wayne County Circuit Court on five counts of criminal sexual conduct.
Mougnieh was charged last month before 23rd Distrct Court Judge William Sutherland after police arrested him in a shopping center parking lot where the assault allegedly took place.
Police Sgt. Troy Cox said patrol officers spotted Mougnieh in a minivan outside a closed business near the intersection of Telegraph and Eureka roads shortly before 11 p.m. May 14. The van’s windows were steamed, police said, and Mougnieh was inside with a 14-year-old girl.
Mougnieh was charged with three counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct — punishable by up to 15 years in prison — and two counts of fourth-degree CSC. All five charges were bound over to circuit court.
Mougnieh remained free on bond — 10 percent of $35,000 — and ordered to have no contact with the victim, use of drugs or alcohol or to have contact with any minor children without an adult present.
(James Mitchell can be reached at [email protected].)