Rape raps vs cager junked

The Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped charges against Red Bull cager Davon Maurice Harp who had faced rape and acts of lasciviousness charges filed by a 28-year-old radio contributor covering sports.

State Prosecutor Mary Josephine Lazaro threw out the suit filed by Maylene Duran owing to "insufficiency of evidence," aside from the fact that she once visited the Fil-Am professional basketball player in his condominium alone and allegedly asked P15,300 from him.

"We are not discounting the possibility that, given the circumstances, what transpired between them, if any, was not a forced sexual intercourse but a consensual one," she said of the Radyo ng Bayan (dzRB) coordinator.

The lady prosecutor likewise noted that Duran’s attempt to have an audience with the Harp, with the consent of her lawyer, actually defeated the very reason why she filed the sexual offense.

"What is there to confer for? The restoration of the complainant’s alleged lost virginity? Be that as it may, the documented initiative of complainant to confer with her alleged defiler defies the ordinary experience of man," Lazaro pointed out.

Duran’s credibility also crumbled when she concealed the fact that she visited Harp’s condo unit at Platinum 2000 on Annapolis street, San Juan on Sept. 2001. The condominium logbook records revealed that she went there "alone."

"While it is our duty to institute all criminal prosecution when the evidence so warrants, it is equally our duty to refrain when the evidence fails," she said, adding she had "serious intuitive doubt as to the truth and veracity" of the victim’s ordeal.

After claiming that she was raped on Sept. 21, 2001 in the condo unit, she still met Harp a month later at the parking lot of the Meralco gym.

"Worthy to note is the fact that we are dealing with a wordly-wise 28-year-old woman, an accounting officer of a construction company and part time contributor of dzRB sports news programs," said Lazaro.

Duran’s claim that she tested positive for gonorrhea after the sexual abuse didn’t serve its purpose after all, following the circumstances in which her ordeal became suspicious.

Harp had consistently denied the allegations. "I vehemently deny the false, perjured and fabricated accusations of the complainant as well as the rehearsed statement by her witness."