Nicole relives ordeal
Saturday, June 3, 2006
Prosecution witnesses, both security personnel, describe Nicole as visibly drunk at the Nepture Bar inside Subic Bay Freeport.
Tomas Corpuz Jr., security guard, describes Nicole as swaying "as if she wasn't herself" and barely able to stand. "When she happened to pass me by and almost bumped me, she reeked of liquor,” Corpuz said. This was, according to Corpuz, at about 11 pm November 1.
Gerald Muyot, who was posted outside the Neptune at around the same time, said that he saw an American (later identified as Smith) carrying a very drunk Nicole piggyback on his way out of the bar and “loading” her into a green Starex van with plate number WKF-162. Muyot testified that one of the Americans said: "She’s with me, we’re gonna go now.”
“I became suspicious because he told me that when I wasn’t even asking him—and why would he say that to me? That’s why I took a piece of paper from my wallet and took note of the van’s plate number.”
Muyot said that at around 2:45 a.m. of Nov. 2, a mobile patrol car arrived in front of the Neptune. He said Nicole alighted and asked security guards if there were any other US servicemen inside the bar.
“She said the men did something bad to her and she wanted to see if there were any other US Marines inside. So I escorted her inside the club, but when she saw that there were no other Marines there, she left,” Muyot said.
The defense tried to portray the Nepture Bar as a "naughty place," asking such questions as “What do people do in the private VIP rooms?” and if Neptune employed hospitality girls and if so how many were working that night.
Ursua, on the other hand, is using the testimonty of the two security guards as further evidence that Nicole could not have consented to sex since "she was very drunk, she smelled of liquor, she appeared to be not herself inside the bar,” adding that “when a woman is raped, her character would have nothing to do with it. Even one who’s into prostitution has a right not to be raped.”
Furthermore, on the took the defense lawyers’ questions about Neptune being a "naughty" and "notorious" place, Ursua said that "it has nothing to do with the issue of rape."
Sources
edit- Volt Contreras, Tarra V. Quismundo. "Nicole relives ordeal" — Philippines Inquirer, June 3, 2006
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