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| The magistrate doubted the Filipina's claim of repeated strip searches |
By Vir B. Lumicao
An Eastern
Court
Magistrate Simon K.F. Ho also cleared the investigators on
May 16 of complaints of misconduct brought up by the defense before the trial
of defendant Margie Lotino started.
Ho said he did not find any material substance in the
defendant’s accusations against the officers who arrested her and handled her
case.
Lotino said that during the body searches, female
investigators singularly or in pairs allegedly ordered her to strip down to her
underwear then looked into her bra and panties for any stolen items. Only one
report of the body searches was made.
But Ho said he did not see any reason to doubt the evidence
given by the five officers, who all said during cross examination that they did
not remember any of the incidents cited by Lotino. They were identified by
Lotino in an ID parade and called to the witness stand on Apr 20.
Ho said he rejected the evidence of Lotino that various
investigators bodily searched her, starting from the night they arrested her in
the house of her employers in January. The bodily search reportedly continued
at the Western Police Station, then to the Wanchai Police Station where she was
transferred, then back at Western station.
The magistrate said he based his decision on the ground that
the complaints against the officers were not mentioned in the affidavit that
Lotino submitted in court. He said the charges were added when the case was
already being heard in court.
Lotino pleaded not guilty on Mar 13 to a charge that she
stole $500 and a lip balm from her female employer on Jan 2.
When the case went to trial on Apr 20, she accused her
employer, purportedly a police officer, of having set her up. Her lawyer raised
the issue on the alleged police misconduct and asked Ho to call the officers to
the witness stand to answer the accusations.
The maid said she signed a police statement admitting the
offenses because she was cold, hungry, tired from lack of sleep and under
intense pressure from the body searches and interrogations that lasted more
than 14 hours before she was released on bail.
During the ordeal, the police reportedly refused to give her
water or make phone calls to the Consulate or to the Hong
Kong employment agency that deployed her.
Agency representative Melanie Fisher, taking the witness
stand for the defense on May 16, said Lotino went straight to the agency
distraught after being released by the police.
Fisher told her to rest, as it was then past 6pm and the
Consulate was already closed. The next morning, she took Lotino to the assistance
to nationals section where officer Danny Baldon met them, but he told them to return
the following day because of a meeting.
As a result of the magistrate’s rejection of the defense’s
proposal, the duty lawyer representing Lotino decided to call her again to the
witness stand. But as it was already late in the afternoon, Ho adjourned the
case to June 7.
