Doc says Nicole’s injuries consistent with sexual assault

A Filipino doctor testifying at a rape trial involving four United States Marines said yesterday that the complainant suffered injuries consistent with a sexual assault.

Dr. Rolando Ortiz II of the James Gordon Memorial Hospital in Olongapo City told the court he examined the 22-year-old woman — identified in court only as "Nicole" — two days after she was allegedly raped by a Marine while the three others cheered him on.

Asked if her injuries were consistent with rape, he replied, "It is consistent."

He said the woman suffered five bruises on her arms, legs and genital area.

The rape charge is punishable by up to 40 years in prison. The Marines have refused to answer the charge, and the judge entered a plea of innocent for them.

Prosecutors contend the woman was attacked last Nov. 1 in a van at Subic Bay Freeport by Lance Corporal Daniel Smith as Lance Cpls. Keith Silkwood and Dominic Duplantis and Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier cheered on the assault.

With the aid of diagrams, Ortiz showed the court that he found contusions on five different areas of the woman’s body — one on the right arm, two on the left arm, and two on the right leg.

He said a contusion refers to discoloration of the skin caused either by being hit by a blunt object or pressure exerted by another person’s fingers. These bruises, according to Ortiz, were colored black to gray and were sustained 12 hours to four or five days before he examined the woman.

During cross-examination by defense lawyers, Ortiz said the bruises could have been sustained before the alleged rape and could have been caused by activities other than rape.

Ortiz went on to relate his findings that the woman endured forced sexual penetration. Many of the spectators in the courtroom were silent as he discussed his findings, while some giggled.

He said the woman’s vagina had lacerations — evidence that she was forced to have sex — and such wounds can be sustained if a woman has not lubricated as part of "adequate physiological response to a stimuli," which would relax the vagina and prepare it for penetration.

Ortiz said he concluded that the woman’s genitalia suffered trauma because of external force of recent origin, and that no spermatozoa was found which could either mean that there was no ejaculation or, if the woman was indeed raped, a condom was used.

The defense panel brought in a surprise lawyer to cross-examine Ortiz. Antonio Alejandro Rebosa, representing Duplantis, is both a lawyer and a doctor who specialized in forensic medicine.

Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 139 Judge Benjamin Pozon smiled and shook his head a number of times after disallowing many of the questions put to Ortiz, which the prosecution said were immaterial, hypothetical, argumentative, or misleading.

Rebosa asked Ortiz about the complainant’s answers to questions asked of her prior to the medico-legal examination, including whether she had a boyfriend.

The complainant’s lawyer, Evalyn Ursua, strongly objected to the question and said such answers were part of privileged communication between doctor and patient. Pozon disallowed Rebosa’s question.

Rebosa also questioned Ortiz’s findings regarding the woman’s contusions. Spectators laughed when Rebosa asked Ortiz to draw the contusions on a piece of lined yellow paper. Ortiz measured the contusions in centimeters in his report.

The complainant’s lawyers objected to Rebosa’s request, and Pozon said it was not necessary for Ortiz to draw a likeness of the contusions. — Michael Punongbayan, AP