Fil-Am found guilty of raping ‘blindfolded’ GRO

After a seven-year trial, a Filipino-American was found guilty of abducting a woman in front of a sauna in Quezon City and taking turns with his two friends in raping her.

Judge Juris Dilinila-Callanta, of QC Regional Trial Court Branch 85, sentenced Jansen Rey Ruckenbrod to reclusion perpetua or 20-40 years in prison for forcible abduction with rape, and a maximum of 10 years for rape through sexual assault.

The convict was also ordered to pay the victim P235,000 in civil, moral and exemplary damages.

Ruckenbrod was arrested on Sept. 23, 2010, a day after he and two companions kidnapped the then 25-year-old victim at gunpoint in front of a massage parlor on Quezon Avenue.

Inside a sport utility vehicle, his two companions blindfolded and sexually assaulted the woman, who was then working at a nightspot as a guest relations officer (GRO).

The men then brought her to a house in Fairview, where she was again raped and sexually assaulted by Ruckenbrod and the two men, who remained at large and were identified in the case records only as “Pogi” and “Inggo.”

After the assault, the suspects dropped her off at an undisclosed location, threatening to kill her if she looked at their faces.

Ruckenbrod was tracked down by the authorities after the victim’s sister, who witnessed the abduction, was able to take note of the vehicle’s plate number and reported it to the police.

He denied the charges, claiming that the woman consented to have sex for a fee, but that he and his friends were not able to pay her.

But the court rejected this defense for being “uncorroborated and self-serving,” while finding the victim’s testimony to be “categorical, steadfast and unwavering.”

“The complainant’s admission that she works as a GRO or ‘nagbibigay-aliw’ (providing entertainment) cannot be considered an excuse in the eyes of the law for him to employ force and intimidation, threat in abducting and raping the complainant,” Callanta said.