Rape trial of 4 US Marines adjourned after 'Nicole' suffers breakdown
By TERESA CEROJANO
Manila Bulletin
MANILA (AP) -- A rape trial involving four U.S. Marines adjourned Friday until next week because the accuser suffered a breakdown a day after taking the stand, the judge said.
The woman, identified in court by the pseudonym ``Nicole,'' identified the U.S. Marine who allegedly raped her as she tearfully testified Thursday during the emotional 6-week-old trial.
She was scheduled to return to the stand on Friday, but Judge Benjamin Pozon adjourned the proceedings until Monday because ``the complainant suffered a breakdown.''
``After her testimony yesterday, we could not talk to her. She just wanted to be left alone. She kept on crying,'' the woman's brother said.
He quoted her psychiatrist as saying she was too stressed out to return to the courtroom.
The 22-year-old woman alleged she was attacked in a van Nov. 1 by Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith as Lance Cpl. Keith Silkwood, Lance Cpl.
Dominic Duplantis and Staff Sgt. Chad Carpentier cheered him on.
The Marines have refused to answer the rape charges, punishable by up to 40 years in prison, prompting the judge to enter an innocent plea for them. Defense lawyers insist Smith had consensual sex with the woman.
She testified Thursday that she was already intoxicated while dancing at a bar at the Subic Bay freeport, a former U.S. Naval base, when Smith grabbed her by the wrist to dance.
Scared because she didn't know who Smith was, she turned to a U.S. Navy man, a family friend from southern Zamboanga city, who said it was OK to dance with the Marine while telling Smith, ``Just take care of her.''
She continued to drink and then testified that she was forced out of the bar.
``The next thing I remember, someone was lying on top of me,'' she said, before breaking down in tears. ``Someone was kissing me.
... It was Smith.''
During the fast-track proceedings to beat a one-year deadline for the case, several witnesses have testified the woman was seen carried out of the bar on Smith's back into the van. Other witnesses said they later saw the Marines take the half-naked woman out of the van and leave her on a sidewalk
MANILA (AP) -- A rape trial involving four U.S. Marines adjourned Friday until next week because the accuser suffered a breakdown a day after taking the stand, the judge said.
The woman, identified in court by the pseudonym ``Nicole,'' identified the U.S. Marine who allegedly raped her as she tearfully testified Thursday during the emotional 6-week-old trial.
She was scheduled to return to the stand on Friday, but Judge Benjamin Pozon adjourned the proceedings until Monday because ``the complainant suffered a breakdown.''
``After her testimony yesterday, we could not talk to her. She just wanted to be left alone. She kept on crying,'' the woman's brother said.
He quoted her psychiatrist as saying she was too stressed out to return to the courtroom.
The 22-year-old woman alleged she was attacked in a van Nov. 1 by Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith as Lance Cpl. Keith Silkwood, Lance Cpl.
Dominic Duplantis and Staff Sgt. Chad Carpentier cheered him on.
The Marines have refused to answer the rape charges, punishable by up to 40 years in prison, prompting the judge to enter an innocent plea for them. Defense lawyers insist Smith had consensual sex with the woman.
She testified Thursday that she was already intoxicated while dancing at a bar at the Subic Bay freeport, a former U.S. Naval base, when Smith grabbed her by the wrist to dance.
Scared because she didn't know who Smith was, she turned to a U.S. Navy man, a family friend from southern Zamboanga city, who said it was OK to dance with the Marine while telling Smith, ``Just take care of her.''
She continued to drink and then testified that she was forced out of the bar.
``The next thing I remember, someone was lying on top of me,'' she said, before breaking down in tears. ``Someone was kissing me.
... It was Smith.''
During the fast-track proceedings to beat a one-year deadline for the case, several witnesses have testified the woman was seen carried out of the bar on Smith's back into the van. Other witnesses said they later saw the Marines take the half-naked woman out of the van and leave her on a sidewalk
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