Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude.INQUIRER CENTRAL LUZON FILE PHOTO
OLONGAPO CITY—A court here has been asked to immediately arraign US Marine Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton, the prime suspect in the murder of transgender Filipino woman Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude in a motel here in October last year.
Olongapo City prosecutors and Laude family lawyer, Harry Roque, on Thursday filed an omnibus motion asking Judge Roline Ginez-Jabalde of the Olongapo Regional Trial Court Branch 74 to lift a suspension of the trial and arraign Pemberton immediately.
They filed the motion two days after the Department of Justice (DOJ) upheld the prosecutors’ decision to indict Pemberton for murder.
The prosecution panel, headed by Emilie Fe de los Santos, urged the court to arraign Pemberton on Feb. 5 so that the trial could move forward.
It’s murder
On Dec. 23, Jabalde granted Pemberton’s appeal for a 60-day suspension of the trial to give way to a review of the murder charge filed on Dec. 15 against him by the prosecutors.
On Tuesday, the DOJ junked Pemberton’s petition to review the murder case, saying that it found that “all the elements of murder were satisfied,” and that “there was no reason to alter, modify, or reverse the resolution of the city prosecutor of Olongapo.”
Laude was found dead on Oct. 11, 2014, in a motel room which she rented, accompanied by a Caucasian male identified by witnesses as Pemberton.
Lawyer Gerry Gruspe, RTC Branch 74 clerk of court, said Jabalde was set to hear the prosecutors’ omnibus motion on Monday, Feb. 2.
The prosecutors also asked the court to resolve the motion for inhibition they filed against Jabalde.
“Now that the DOJ already resolved [Pemberton’s] petition for review, we humbly believe there is no more reason for the [court] to hold its arraignment in abeyance,” the prosecutors said in their motion.
Citing Jabalde’s association with the American soldier’s lawyer, the prosecutors questioned her transparency and neutrality.
Doubts on judge
Jabalde’s resolution on the motion to inhibit her from the case has “a direct bearing on how instant the case will proceed,” the prosecutors noted.
The other members of the prosecution panel are Assistant City Prosecutor Ria Nina Sususco, Assistant State Prosecutor Nolibien Quiambao and Associate City Prosecutors Laurence Joel Taliping, Rommel Baligod and Catherine Mesuelo.
On Dec. 19 last year, Pemberton, escorted by American and Filipino security forces, surrendered to the court, supplied authorities with his fingerprints and his mug shots but he was never arraigned so he could stand trial.
“We can now proceed to prove his guilt. The nation deserves the truth while the victim deserves justice,” Roque said in a statement.
Pemberton is detained at a US government-guarded facility near the Armed Forces headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
The US government has invoked provisions in the Visiting Forces Agreement to keep custody of the US Marine and promised to make Pemberton available during court hearings.
The outcry over Laude’s killing, however, appears to have waned as shown by the small attendance in Laude’s burial. Allan Macatuno, Inquirer Central Luzon