BARELY AN EXCUSE
Sick ‘strip’ reasoning
The jealous creep who forced his girlfriend to walk naked through Harlem claimed Tuesday that she agreed to the stunt in an bid to atone for texting other men.
“In Africa, they used to do this when somebody gets cheated on,” Jasson Melo, inexplicably wearing his expired UN credentials from his time there as a cook, told jurors.
“You can do this,” he affirmed.
Melo said he came home from a night of partying in January 2016 at around 5 a.m. to find the mother of his child in bed, getting text messages.
He grabbed the phone after hearing her exclaim, “Oh, how big” and was confronted with a picture of another man’s penis, he testified.
Screen shots of the conversation were projected for the jury as Melo whined about her alleged infidelity.
The 24-year-old woman had testified Monday that she and Melo were no longer together at the time, and that he was verbally and physically abusive during their relationship.
“In order for her to be forgiven for sexting, she had to do the naked walk,” Melo told the panel.
The cellphone footage shows the nearnaked woman begging Melo to stop as she inches down the street in a towel and boots. Melo then tugs away the towel, leaving her nude on the street.
She testified that he threatened to push her down the stairs, or kill her, if she didn’t go outside.
Melo, 26, agreed when prosecutor Caitlin Connolly sarcastically asked, “You were trying to protect her at the time?”
“Exactly,” Melo said. “This is a woman I really loved.”
If convicted, he faces up to seven years behind bars.