The brother of an alleged rape victim testified before the Hall County Magistrate Court on Friday.
According to the Gainesville Times, a probable cause hearing was held Friday, June 20 for Amelbis Alvarado Dippiton, who was arrested on June 1st and charged with rape. He has been held in the Hall County jail without bond since that time.
According to the victim’s brother’s testimony, he, his sister, his sister’s friend, and Dippiton, went tubing in Helen (on the day of the incident) and then returned to the pool at Village Square Apartments, located at Pace Court in Gainesville. He said that “his sister came out of the pool crying, but he initially couldn’t really hear what was going on because of water in his ears.” After Jed Carter, the defendant’s attorney, asked the witness more questions, the man asked Magistrate Court Judge Margaret Gregory, if he had to answer any more questions.
Gainesville Police Investigator Hannah Ruiz also gave testimony, according to the Times, stating that “Amelbis Alexander Alvarado Dippiton, 19, waited for her [the victim’s] brother to be far away from them before he pushed ‘her bikini bottoms to the side, and he raped her multiple times’. . .”
After the alleged victim’s brother testified, no other arguments were made on either side, and Judge Gregory moved the charge to superior court.