By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Payne County judge has refused to reduce $75,000 bail for a 47-year-old man accused of sexually battering three clients in Stillwater at Royal Nails, from which he was fired as a contract worker last July.
Nam Huu Nguyen had been sought for months before being arrested in New York City on Nov. 5, 2020, and transported to the Payne County Jail where he remains held pending a July 20 pre-trial hearing.
Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler denied a bail reduction last week — with a finding that Nguyen has a criminal record and has no ties to the Stillwater community, court records show. The judge had allowed a non-certified language interpreter for the bail hearing.
Defense attorney Royce Hobbs had sought a lower bail by noting in a motion, “Defendant had to wait in jail for almost six months to have a preliminary hearing due to the court not being able to obtain a certified Vietnamese interpreter and finally had to settle for a non-certified one. Being able to obtain an interpreter to aid defense counsel will best be able to occur with the defendant not in custody.”
The case against Nguyen was filed last summer after a woman called Stillwater police on July 15, 2020, at 6:03 pm to report that she was sexually battered when she went to get her nails done at Royal Nails between 3:45 pm and 4 pm, Stillwater Police Detective Mary Kellison alleged in an affidavit.
After filing a report that day with police, the woman “made a post in a private Facebook group,” in which she disclosed the incident and where it happened in hopes that it would not happen to anyone else, the affidavit alleged.
Another woman, who was 20 weeks pregnant, saw the post and called Stillwater police on July 16, 2020, to report that she was sexually battered, the affidavit alleged. She said that on July 10, 2020, she and her sister went to Royal Nails to get her nails done for a birthday, the affidavit alleged. She said that after the alleged assault, “she grabbed her stuff, walked out of the room, and headed toward her sister,” whom she told once they were outside, the affidavit said.
On July 16, 2020, the Stillwater police detective contacted the salon owner, who said she had fired Nguyen the previous day “when she was approached by a customer about her experience,” the affidavit alleged.
The salon owner “had a very intricate video surveillance system inside the store,” the detective noted in her affidavit.
At the time, Nguyen was driving a black four-door Nissan Ultima with an out-of-state license plate, the affidavit alleged.
Another woman went to the Stillwater Police Department on July 29, 2020, to report that she was sexually battered on July 15, 2020, when she and her friend went to the salon at 913 N. Perkins Road to have their nails done, the affidavit alleged.
If convicted of three counts of sexual battery, Nguyen could be given a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, court records show.
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