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Wednesday, September 20, 2006
US soldier denies Nicole was raped
MANILA -- One of four US servicemen facing rape charges filed by a 22-year-old Filipino woman took the witness stand on Tuesday and denied that rape ever took place.
Staff Sergeant Chad Brian Carpentier said the claim of the complainant, Nicole, that she was carried on the back of one of the servicemen onto a waiting van outside a bar at the former US naval base in Subic Bay was not true.
"She was not forced or boarded into the van outside the Neptune bar," replied Carpentier when asked on direct testimony by defense counsel Francisco Rodrigo the manner by which Nicole got on the van.
Several prosecution witnesses, including the bar's security, told the court during their testimony that they saw Lance Corporal Daniel Smith carrying the complainant on his back to a waiting Starex van where the alleged rape took place.
He also said he saw the complainant sitting on the lap of Smith inside the bar and that they were "aggressively flirting and kissing each other."
Carpentier also denied the complainant's claim that they were cheering Smith on while he was allegedly raping her.
"During the trip I wasn't conversing with any one of them while Silkwood and Duplantis were conversing normally," said Carpentier, adding that at that time his focus was how to get the rest of his platoon back to the USS Essex docked at the Subic Bay's Alava Pier before midnight.
Carpentier was referring to Lance Corporals Dominic Duplantis and Keith Silkwood who were likewise charged in the case.
Smith earlier told the court that while he and Nicole were having sex at the back of the van there was only "normal drunken laughter" coming from his buddies seated at the middle and front passenger seats of the vehicle.
Carpentier also told the court that he thinks the woman is a "professional out to prey on the vulnerability of Smith."
While he was taking the witness stand, Nicole was facing the media in a press conference in a Makati City restaurant and reiterated her appeal for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to replace the prosecutors handling the case.
She made the appeal despite the decision of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. on Monday to let the public prosecutors headed by Senior State Prosecutor Emelie de Los Santos continue handling the case.
A television report, however, said Gonzalez has changed his mind and said he may still change the panel of prosecutors in the Subic rape case. For now, though, Gonzales still has confidence in de los Santos and her fellow prosecutors.
Nicole earlier branded the prosecutors as "incompetent" and too "lenient" in the cross-examination of Smith during his testimony last Monday before the sala of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 139 Judge Benjamin Pozon.
Joined by her counsel Evalyn Ursua and her psychiatrist Dr. June Pagaduan Lopez, a teary-eyed Nicole also slammed the prosecutors for calling her names, adding she was the victim in the case and that it is within her right when she has lost trust and confidence in them to ask for their replacement.
"If she did not believe in us by calling me and my mother as liars and ingrates then she should be with the defense panel and not with the prosecution," said Nicole of de Los Santos who earlier called her a liar.
Lopez, for her part, said the action and statements of Gonzalez and the prosecutors only show they are not concerned about the predicament of the complainant.
"We are deeply saddened by the turn of events which have left her and her mother dissatisfied and alienated from those who are suppose to champion her cause. It seems that the justice secretary and the state prosecutors do not possess the ability to build the necessary rapport and trust with the complainant," the doctor said, adding that by subjecting Nicole to name-calling, they are in effect engaged in "victim-bashing."
He said their behavior towards the complainant is in violation of Republic Act (RA) 8505 or the Rape Victim Assistance and Protection Act of 1998, which states that it is the "policy of the state to provide the necessary assistance and protection for rape victims."
But in an earlier interview, de Los Santos said they would continue their handling of the case with or without the cooperation of the complainant as it is their mandate to prosecute the case.
Set to take the witness stand on Thursday is Silkwood and Duplantis on Friday. (AH/Sunnex)
(September 20, 2006 issue)
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