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| NEWS > 15 December 2007 |
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UK: Police superintendent will
A POLICE disciplinary panel has overturned a recommendation from the Independent Police Complaints Commission that a senior officer involved in reinvestigating Wales’ most notorious miscarriage of justice case should be disciplined for misconduct.
Instead, despite a finding of misconduct, Superintendent John Penhale is to be offered “suitable advice”, without further penalty.
Lynn Powell, a former police officer with more than 20 years’ experience who worked as intelligence officer on the Lynette White reinvestigation, complained she was humiliated in front of colleagues when... Read more
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Inquirer.net - Philippines
15 December 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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‘Bribe started with cops’
After days of silence, lawyer Gines Abellana yesterday spoke out about a P50,000 payoff made to police to get his client off the hook.
“They instigated it,” he said of the bribery attempt.
He accused Supt. Marvin Sanchez and two other police officers of demanding the amount from his client, a Talisay City woman arrested on suspicion of selling illegal drugs.
The lawyer’s role in the P50,000 payoff was earlier cited by the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group (RAIDSOTG-7), which arrested a policewoman earlier sent by Abellana to deliver the cash.
But Abellana insisted the entrapment and arrest of PO1 Blaire Francis Quezon was foul.
“Ilang gitinontohan si Blaire. Ilang gi-instigate, ilang gi-induce pagpaproduce og kwarta unya ilang gi-entrap. (They fooled Blaire. They instigated her, they induced her to produce the money then they trapped her.),” Abellana told Cebu Daily News.
In his account, it was the RAIDSOTG-7 which solicited the bribe from his client, Cleofe Samonte Racaza, who was arrested Friday and jailed on suspicion of drug pushing.
The lawyer said he had sent PO1 Quezon to the police unit to verify an offer relayed by a task group “asset” that they could withhold filing criminal charges against Racaza for P100,000 or file a lighter charge of drug possession for P50,000. Abellana said he chose a policewoman to follow up so the RAIDSOTG-7 wouldn’t get suspicious that the stage was being set for an entrapment.
In the end, it was PO1 Quezon who was snared, with the lawyer implicated in the deal.
Abellana was interviewed yesterday in his law office in the Patria Cebu building, where he also serves as president of the Knights of Columbus.
He said he’s known PO1 Quezon as his law student in a local university and as a client, having handled her previous case for annulment of marriage.
The scandal has prompted a call by lawyer Democrito Barcenas for the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu chapter to investigate the payoff and Abellana’s conduct, saying it affects the credibility and integrity of other lawyers.
But a cautious IBP Cebu city president Joseph Briccio Boholst said “the statements of the policemen were hearsay” and that an official inquiry would have to be based on a verified complaint by someone with direct knowledge of the bribery.
LIBEL THREAT
Abellana yesterday said he would file cases for libel, bribery and instigating to commit a crime against Supt. Sanchez, head of the RAIDSOTG-7, and two of his men, PO2 Roehl Patalinghug and PO2 Armando Labora.
The lawyer said the cases will be filed next week after he prepares the affidavit of PO1 Quezon and the two sisters of Racaza, who will vouch that they raised P50,000 to meet the demand of arresting police officers.
In the interview, Abellana confirmed the envelope containing the P50,000 with his name on it “Bro. Gines Abellana” came from him.
It was a used envelope from his car, he said. The sisters of his client had spotted it and asked to place the money bills inside it before turning the cash over to PO1 Quezon in the police office.
The envelope was earlier mentioned in the affidavit of the arresting police officers.
Abellana said the original envelope could have come from his fellow members in the Knights of Columbus, hence the address “Brother”.
In their joint affidavit, Sanchez and his two men said PO1 Quezon revealed that she was sent by Abellana to their office to negotiate for the lowering of the case against his client from drug pushing, which is non-bailable, to drug possession.
Abellana said he can prove his client, Racaza, was arrested “without basis” by police last Friday, Dec. 7, when the RAIDSOTG-7 surprised her at home in Tangke, Talisay. He said the police made it appear a buy-bust operation took place. But a neighbor just pointed to Racaza as a drug pusher, resulting in her arrest, he said.
Racaza was taken into police custody and brought to the RAIDSTOG-7 office and then detained at the Fuente Police Station.
Abellana said his client related that a certain Bandian, a police asset, approached her in her cell, saying he was sent by Sanchez and PO2 Patalinghug to open possible negotiation of the case.
For P100,000, no criminal case would be filed against her and for P50,000 the case of drug pushing could be lowered to possession of illegal drugs, she was told.
The detainee said she had no money but would try to raise the amount. At this point, the lawyer said he called PO1 Quezon to check with the two police officers if the offer of a negotiation was real.
He recalled telling her: “Since you’re a police officer, you won’t be suspected of trying to entrap them. Ask them if it is true that they sent Bandian to negotiate for a settlement.”
On Monday morning, the policewoman said she received a text message from Patalinghug that P50,000 would be accepted for the dismissal of the case.
Abellana said he advised his client to prepare the money to avoid further inconvenience. She was also complaining of the foul order in the jail cell.
“Cleofe (his client) even agreed to sell her house in Tangke for P50,000 just to gain her liberty,” said the lawyer.
Two of her sisters, Fely and Ofelia, raised the amount.
The lawyer said he dropped off the two sisters near the Police Regional Office (PRO-7) in the afternoon of Monday, Dec. 10. PO1 Quezon was waiting to receive the money to give to the arresting officers.
Abellana told CDN Sanchez, head of the RAIDSOTG-7, may have a grudge against him because he cross examined the police officer in court in a case involving a Japanese national in 2004.
He said Sanchez was then assigned at the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Division (CIID) of the Cebu City police. A Japanese client complained that $40,000 was seized by task group operatives but that only $38,000 was returned. Sanchez was grilled in court for not presenting complete funds confiscated from the Japanese.
Abellana also told CDN that after PO1 Quezon was caught, she was told by the arresting officers in the RAIDSOTG-7 that they staged the entrapment thinking that Abellana himself had laid a trap for them.
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