US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was sentenced to 6-12 years imprisonment and ordered to pay the Laude family at least P4.5 million for various damages. The court also ordered his “temporary” detention at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City.
MANILA (Mabuhay) – The family of slain transgender Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude has asked the court to cite in contempt Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement Executive Director Eduardo Oban for not bringing US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton to the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).
Apart from Oban, the Laude family told the Olongapo Regional Trial Court Branch 74 that 11 American security personnel should likewise be cited in indirect contempt.
In a petition to cite for indirect contempt, the Laudes said Oban and the 11 Americans defied the RTC’s order to bring Pemberton to the NBP in Muntinlupa City after he was found guilty of homicide and sentenced to six to 12 years in prison over the killing of Laude inside a motel in Olongap October last year.
Oban earlier told the court that Pemberton should remain detained at the military headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City as agreed upon by the Philippine and US governments, in accordance to the VFA.
In response, Judge Roline Ginez-Jabalde required Oban to produce the necessary documents to prove such an arrangment between the two governments.
Former Justice Undersecretary Jose Justiniano earlier said any move from the Laude camp to have Pemberton transfered to the national penitentiary would be “hopeless,” since the court had already finished resolving the criminal aspect of the case and that the family’s role in the case was limited only to the civil aspect of it.
Justiniano and criminal law professor Enrique dela Cruz had said Pemberton is allowed to apply for bail, but added that he would definitely not be allowed to leave the country.
Justiniano was the defense lawyer of US serviceman Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, another US soldier convicted but later acquitted of raping a Filipina in 2005.(MNS)