Feud between Nicole, prosecution worsens
By Ferdinand Fabella and Rey E. Requejo
Manila Standard Today
THE mother of the woman who accuse four US marines of rape insisted yesterday that government prosecutors were deliberately trying to lose the case after she failed to have them replaced.
The mother tore into Senior State Prosecutor Emelie Fe de los Santos for calling her and her daughter—identified only as Nicole—ingrates.
Last week, mother and daughter walked out of the courtroom to protest against what they called the “ineptitude” of state prosecutors and asked the Department of Justice to replace them.
But Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez denied the request, saying their accusations had no basis and doing so would delay the trial.
De los Santos, who heads the five-member prosecution team, called Nicole and her mother “ungrateful” and “crazy” following their claim that the public prosecutors had asked them as early as July to withdraw their rape complaint and to accept a settlement.
Nicole’s mother, a retired civilian supervisor in the Navy, claimed that De los Santos floated the idea of dropping their case in exchange for having the United States go easy on former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante, who is under arrest for violating US immigration laws.
Asked to comment on De los Santos’ denial, the mother insisted that what she said was true and said she would stand by her story.
Nicole, her mother, and their private lawyer Evalyn Ursua stayed away again from the hearing yesterday, a strong indication of their worsening feud with the state prosecutors.
De los Santos, who had just returned from out of town, was present for the trial’s resumption yesterday afternoon.
She told reporters after the hearing that they would fight for Nicole “even if she doesn’t want to fight for herself.”
“Sinong matutuwa at di magagalit sa kanilang ginawa? Mga taong ingrata walang lugar sa mundong ito. Walang utang na loob! [Who wouldn’t be angry at what they did? Ingrates have no place in this world. [they have]no sense of gratitude!” De los Santos said.
She bristled as she denied the mother’s charge that the marines’ acquittal was being traded for Bolante.
“Joc-Joc is a big joke. Bolante’s case is not even being handled by the [justice department]. That’s crazy!” she said and and called Nicole’s mother a liar.
She played down Nicole’s threat to boycott the hearings unless the prosecutors were replaced.
“We are now in the defense stage of the trial,” she said.
“In criminal cases the real complainant is the People of the Philippines. The complainant [Nicole] is just a witness. She has completed her testimony. We have already offered our evidence formally to the court. Their being present here or not has no bearing now.”
De los Santos said that if the prosecution needed Nicole to rebut a defense witness, she would have to decide if she still wished to pursue the case.
The verbal exchanges between De los Santos and Nicole’s mother overshadowed the testimony of forensic clinician Dr. Teresita Sanchez yesterday afternoon.
Testifying as an expert witness for the defense, Sanchez told the court that the five bruises found on Nicole’s body might not have been caused by a person’s fingers but by other conditions, such as an accident.
Prosecutors said Nicole had sustained the injuries while she was being forced into sex with Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith inside a moving van in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone on Nov. 1, 2005.
“I do not find any injury significant to suggest that there was rape or force,” Sanchez said.
She gave importance to the absence of bruises and other injuries on Nicole’s inner thighs and knees, things that should have been present in a rape.
She said Nicole, who claimed to have been drunk during the rape, should have heavy legs so that her attacker would have needed to force her legs open to penetrate.
The bruises in her genitals cold also have been sustained during consensual sex.
Sanchez questioned the findings of a prosecution witness, a toxicologist, that Nicole’s state of drunkenness that night would have rendered her incapable of resisting a sexual attack.
With the amount of alcohol in Nicole’s blood, she would have fallen into a coma and have no memory of the rape at all.
Defense lawyers are to present Staff Sgt. Chad Carpentier today.
The highest-ranking officer of the three other accused marines, Carpentier allegedly permitted Smith to take Nicole into the van, where he and Lance Cpls. Keith Silkwood and Dominic Duplantis were said to have cheered Smith on while he was raping Nicole.
The marines have denied these charges.
Silkwood and Duplantis will testify on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
State prosecutors are under pressure to finish the trial within a year, because the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the United States says the accused would no longer be required to submit themselves to legal proceedings after that.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita yesterday said both sides should now discuss when the one-year period would lapse for the Subic trial. With Joyce Pangco Pañares
Manila Standard Today
THE mother of the woman who accuse four US marines of rape insisted yesterday that government prosecutors were deliberately trying to lose the case after she failed to have them replaced.
The mother tore into Senior State Prosecutor Emelie Fe de los Santos for calling her and her daughter—identified only as Nicole—ingrates.
Last week, mother and daughter walked out of the courtroom to protest against what they called the “ineptitude” of state prosecutors and asked the Department of Justice to replace them.
But Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez denied the request, saying their accusations had no basis and doing so would delay the trial.
De los Santos, who heads the five-member prosecution team, called Nicole and her mother “ungrateful” and “crazy” following their claim that the public prosecutors had asked them as early as July to withdraw their rape complaint and to accept a settlement.
Nicole’s mother, a retired civilian supervisor in the Navy, claimed that De los Santos floated the idea of dropping their case in exchange for having the United States go easy on former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante, who is under arrest for violating US immigration laws.
Asked to comment on De los Santos’ denial, the mother insisted that what she said was true and said she would stand by her story.
Nicole, her mother, and their private lawyer Evalyn Ursua stayed away again from the hearing yesterday, a strong indication of their worsening feud with the state prosecutors.
De los Santos, who had just returned from out of town, was present for the trial’s resumption yesterday afternoon.
She told reporters after the hearing that they would fight for Nicole “even if she doesn’t want to fight for herself.”
“Sinong matutuwa at di magagalit sa kanilang ginawa? Mga taong ingrata walang lugar sa mundong ito. Walang utang na loob! [Who wouldn’t be angry at what they did? Ingrates have no place in this world. [they have]no sense of gratitude!” De los Santos said.
She bristled as she denied the mother’s charge that the marines’ acquittal was being traded for Bolante.
“Joc-Joc is a big joke. Bolante’s case is not even being handled by the [justice department]. That’s crazy!” she said and and called Nicole’s mother a liar.
She played down Nicole’s threat to boycott the hearings unless the prosecutors were replaced.
“We are now in the defense stage of the trial,” she said.
“In criminal cases the real complainant is the People of the Philippines. The complainant [Nicole] is just a witness. She has completed her testimony. We have already offered our evidence formally to the court. Their being present here or not has no bearing now.”
De los Santos said that if the prosecution needed Nicole to rebut a defense witness, she would have to decide if she still wished to pursue the case.
The verbal exchanges between De los Santos and Nicole’s mother overshadowed the testimony of forensic clinician Dr. Teresita Sanchez yesterday afternoon.
Testifying as an expert witness for the defense, Sanchez told the court that the five bruises found on Nicole’s body might not have been caused by a person’s fingers but by other conditions, such as an accident.
Prosecutors said Nicole had sustained the injuries while she was being forced into sex with Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith inside a moving van in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone on Nov. 1, 2005.
“I do not find any injury significant to suggest that there was rape or force,” Sanchez said.
She gave importance to the absence of bruises and other injuries on Nicole’s inner thighs and knees, things that should have been present in a rape.
She said Nicole, who claimed to have been drunk during the rape, should have heavy legs so that her attacker would have needed to force her legs open to penetrate.
The bruises in her genitals cold also have been sustained during consensual sex.
Sanchez questioned the findings of a prosecution witness, a toxicologist, that Nicole’s state of drunkenness that night would have rendered her incapable of resisting a sexual attack.
With the amount of alcohol in Nicole’s blood, she would have fallen into a coma and have no memory of the rape at all.
Defense lawyers are to present Staff Sgt. Chad Carpentier today.
The highest-ranking officer of the three other accused marines, Carpentier allegedly permitted Smith to take Nicole into the van, where he and Lance Cpls. Keith Silkwood and Dominic Duplantis were said to have cheered Smith on while he was raping Nicole.
The marines have denied these charges.
Silkwood and Duplantis will testify on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
State prosecutors are under pressure to finish the trial within a year, because the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the United States says the accused would no longer be required to submit themselves to legal proceedings after that.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita yesterday said both sides should now discuss when the one-year period would lapse for the Subic trial. With Joyce Pangco Pañares
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