February 3, 2014
DOJ consolidates complaints over Vhong Navarro mauling incident - Sun.Star
Do you like this story?
ACTOR Vhong Navarro, model/stylist Deniece Cornejo and businessman Cedric Lee will soon face off at the Department of Justice (DOJ) in light of the consolidation of complaints stemming from the mauling incident at a condominium unit in Taguig City last January 22.
Prosecutor General Claro Arellano directed the Taguig Prosecutor's Office on Monday to transmit the records of Cornejo's rape complaint against Navarro to the three-member investigating panel, which is also handling the slew of charges (serious illegal detention, blackmail and serious physical injuries, etc.) filed by the actor and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against the model, Lee and six other individuals.
Arellano saw it practical for the all-women panel to handle the complaints, considering that these "arose from one and the same incident, founded on the same factual and legal issues and involving the same parties."
The panel is composed of Assistant State Prosecutors Olivia Torrevillas, Hazel Decena-Valdez and Marie Elvira Herrera.
Navarro claimed he was beaten up by around six to seven men when he visited Cornejo in her condominium unit, denying Lee's story that he was mauled for raping the 22-year-old woman.
Deniece Cornejo
Vhong Navarro
Footage taken by closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at the Forbeswood Heights bolstered Navarro's claim, the NBI said last week, as Cornejo went out of the unit after the comedian arrived at her place.
Lee earlier said he and his friends mauled Navarro after he came upon Navarro trying to rape his friend. However, the footage suggested that Cornejo was not at the unit when the alleged rape took place.
Cornejo and Lee have since ignored invitations from the NBI to shed light on the incident.
Also asked to appear at the NBI were Lee's suspected companions JP Calma and Jed Fernandez and Soledad Ramos, the owner of the unit where the incident happened.
Navarro also surrendered his mobile phone to investigators so that they can reconstruct the exchange of text messages between him and Cornejo prior to the assault.
Lee and his sister Bernice, Cornejo, Ferdinand Guerrero and Zimmer Rance had already been placed under the Bureau of Immigration's (BI) lookout list.
They will not be barred from leaving the country, however, since the DOJ's authority to issue a watchlist order against suspected criminals has been clipped for the meantime by the Supreme Court (SC).
The NBI said it is important that their flight may at least be monitored as there can be a possibility that the respondents will "frustrate the ends of justice."
Lee and Cornejo denied reports that they were set to fly to Singapore on February 6. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)
Source: Top Stories - Google News
This post was brought to you via RSS.
We take no responsibility whatsoever on any articles posted via RSS. If you want to know more about the author/article, please see source. Thank you, Pipeline Team
0 Responses to “DOJ consolidates complaints over Vhong Navarro mauling incident - Sun.Star”
Post a Comment