Subic rape case van driver a no-show
By Jefferson Antiporda, Manila Times Reporter
AFTER his initial flip-flop, the Starex van driver in the Subic rape case now invoked his right against self-incrimination.
Ignoring the subpoena, the driver Timoteo Soriano stayed away from the Subic rape case hearing scheduled on Monday at the Makati Regional Trial Court. He sent his lawyer, Jose Raulito Paras, who asked the court to quash the subpoena.
The 22-year-old complainant, given the pseudonym Nicole to conceal her true identity, claimed Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, a member of the US Marine Corps, sexually assaulted her in the van being driven by Soriano around the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) on the night of November 1 last year.
In a sworn statement the day after the alleged assault, Soriano claimed having seen Nicole being “gang-raped by four US Marines.” Later, however, he said he had been forced to make the accusation because Paquito Torres, chief of the SBMA’s Intelligence and Investigation Office, threatened to include him in the charge sheet if he refused to sign the affidavit. In fact, he said, he neither knew nor saw what was happening in the van.
Because of that recantation, the prosecution filed a motion to include Soriano in the charge sheet as an accomplice or, worse, as co-conspirator.
Paras told the court his client was no ordinary witness. “He is invoking his right to [sic] self-incrimination,” the lawyer said. “He is not an accused at present, but he is not an ordinary witness. He cannot be compelled to testify against himself.”
Paras said Soriano faces two pending cases. One was a petition filed by the private complainant before the Department of Justice seeking his inclusion as an accomplice. The other arose from a decision made by Judge Renato Dilag of the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court, excluding Soriano from the rape case.
The prosecution elevated the issue to the Court of Appeals. Both the justice department and the appellate court have yet to rule on the motions.
Maria Fe de los Santos, the justice department representative overseeing the prosecution of the case, objected to the motion to quash the subpoena and informed the court that the prosecution would ask that another subpoena be issued to compel Soriano’s appearance.
Judge Pozon gave the prosecution one day to file the motion and two days for Soriano’s lawyer to file the comments. He set July 24 as the tentative date for Soriano’s appearance before the court, saying he would have resolved the issue by then.
Besides Smith, three other US Marines are included in the case as co-conspirators—Staff Sgt. Chad Carpentier, Lance Cpl. Dominic Duplantis and Lance Cpl. Keith Silkwood. The prosecution said the three cheered Smith on as he forced himself on the woman.
In two previous hearings, Nicole recalled how Smith kissed her on the lips and neck while groping her breasts. She said she tried to push him away, but that he was much too strong and heavy for her. She admitted, however, that she did not remember the actual rape, saying she must have passed out because of too much to drink.
The next thing she remembered, she said, she was lying by the roadside, frantically trying to fix her trousers, which she found out she was wearing the wrong way, with the front on her back.
Nicole could not hold back her anger during much of her testimony. At one point, she blurted out she wanted to kill the accused, saying they had dishonored her. In another instance, she shouted invectives at them across the room.
The defense made much of what it called the complainant’s “selective memory.”
Jose Justiniano, Smith’s lawyer, said “rape was [only] a conclusion made by the complainant” and therefore her testimony amounted to nothing. It was his explanation for the abrupt termination of the cross-examination after only an hour.
But according to Evalyn Ursua, lead private prosecutor, the inability of the complainant to recall the actual rape owing to her drunken condition only served to strengthen the case against the Marines. Furthermore, she said, the “fragmented recall,” not “selective memory,” as the defense called the gaps in the narration of the incident, would be explained by the testimony of experts in subsequent hearings.
The security guard at the Neptune Bar, where Nicole and her stepsister and their American host had been drinking heavily, said he saw the complainant being carried into the van by the principal accused. Another witness said he saw the four Marines dump the woman by the roadside.
A medicolegal officer told the court that he found the injuries in the private parts and bruises all over the woman’s body “to be consistent with allegations of rape.”
The marathon hearing is held four hours a day, four days a week to beat the one-year deadline. The RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement prescribes that criminal cases involving American servicemen should be completed within that time frame
AFTER his initial flip-flop, the Starex van driver in the Subic rape case now invoked his right against self-incrimination.
Ignoring the subpoena, the driver Timoteo Soriano stayed away from the Subic rape case hearing scheduled on Monday at the Makati Regional Trial Court. He sent his lawyer, Jose Raulito Paras, who asked the court to quash the subpoena.
The 22-year-old complainant, given the pseudonym Nicole to conceal her true identity, claimed Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, a member of the US Marine Corps, sexually assaulted her in the van being driven by Soriano around the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) on the night of November 1 last year.
In a sworn statement the day after the alleged assault, Soriano claimed having seen Nicole being “gang-raped by four US Marines.” Later, however, he said he had been forced to make the accusation because Paquito Torres, chief of the SBMA’s Intelligence and Investigation Office, threatened to include him in the charge sheet if he refused to sign the affidavit. In fact, he said, he neither knew nor saw what was happening in the van.
Because of that recantation, the prosecution filed a motion to include Soriano in the charge sheet as an accomplice or, worse, as co-conspirator.
Paras told the court his client was no ordinary witness. “He is invoking his right to [sic] self-incrimination,” the lawyer said. “He is not an accused at present, but he is not an ordinary witness. He cannot be compelled to testify against himself.”
Paras said Soriano faces two pending cases. One was a petition filed by the private complainant before the Department of Justice seeking his inclusion as an accomplice. The other arose from a decision made by Judge Renato Dilag of the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court, excluding Soriano from the rape case.
The prosecution elevated the issue to the Court of Appeals. Both the justice department and the appellate court have yet to rule on the motions.
Maria Fe de los Santos, the justice department representative overseeing the prosecution of the case, objected to the motion to quash the subpoena and informed the court that the prosecution would ask that another subpoena be issued to compel Soriano’s appearance.
Judge Pozon gave the prosecution one day to file the motion and two days for Soriano’s lawyer to file the comments. He set July 24 as the tentative date for Soriano’s appearance before the court, saying he would have resolved the issue by then.
Besides Smith, three other US Marines are included in the case as co-conspirators—Staff Sgt. Chad Carpentier, Lance Cpl. Dominic Duplantis and Lance Cpl. Keith Silkwood. The prosecution said the three cheered Smith on as he forced himself on the woman.
In two previous hearings, Nicole recalled how Smith kissed her on the lips and neck while groping her breasts. She said she tried to push him away, but that he was much too strong and heavy for her. She admitted, however, that she did not remember the actual rape, saying she must have passed out because of too much to drink.
The next thing she remembered, she said, she was lying by the roadside, frantically trying to fix her trousers, which she found out she was wearing the wrong way, with the front on her back.
Nicole could not hold back her anger during much of her testimony. At one point, she blurted out she wanted to kill the accused, saying they had dishonored her. In another instance, she shouted invectives at them across the room.
The defense made much of what it called the complainant’s “selective memory.”
Jose Justiniano, Smith’s lawyer, said “rape was [only] a conclusion made by the complainant” and therefore her testimony amounted to nothing. It was his explanation for the abrupt termination of the cross-examination after only an hour.
But according to Evalyn Ursua, lead private prosecutor, the inability of the complainant to recall the actual rape owing to her drunken condition only served to strengthen the case against the Marines. Furthermore, she said, the “fragmented recall,” not “selective memory,” as the defense called the gaps in the narration of the incident, would be explained by the testimony of experts in subsequent hearings.
The security guard at the Neptune Bar, where Nicole and her stepsister and their American host had been drinking heavily, said he saw the complainant being carried into the van by the principal accused. Another witness said he saw the four Marines dump the woman by the roadside.
A medicolegal officer told the court that he found the injuries in the private parts and bruises all over the woman’s body “to be consistent with allegations of rape.”
The marathon hearing is held four hours a day, four days a week to beat the one-year deadline. The RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement prescribes that criminal cases involving American servicemen should be completed within that time frame
posted by OlongapoCity Zambales at
5:21 AM
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