Court resets hearing on ex-PBA import

The Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court deferred on Tuesday the scheduled arraignment of American basketball player Jamelle Cornley, who is charged with thrashing a hotel and hitting a policeman last month.

Branch 31 Judge Maria Gilda Pangilinan briefly spoke to announce to litigants that all hearings for the day, including that of Cornley, had to be reset.

The deferment of all hearings, Pangilinan explained, was to pave the way for the encoding of all cases for the electronic court system that the Supreme Court is planning to launch at the Quezon City Hall of Justice by next month. Quezon City was chosen by the high court as the pilot area for the program.

When Cornley’s case for direct assault and alarm and scandal was called, neither the cager nor the complainant PO2 Anselmo Lazatin was present.

The court scheduled the next hearing on May 21 where, apart from the arraignment, Pangilinan is expected to resolve a request by defense lawyer Lino Dumas that his client be allowed to undergo preliminary investigation.