Karen, Sven file P50-M suit against police

IT’S payback time for Norwegian Sven-Erik Berger and his Cebuana fianceé Karen Esdrelon.

The couple yesterday filed criminal and administrative charges against four police officers and an immigration official before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.

Heading their hit list was former Cebu provincial police chief Senior Supt. Erson Digal and immigration officer Arthur Omega.

The two were each slapped with a P50-million damage suit.

Also included were Chief Insp. Donalita Baya Sotto of the Police Center for Aviation Security (PCAS) and Rubin Cuizon and Lamberto Hibaya of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7).

The couple’s lawyer Glenn Villariza said the rest of the respondents should also be mandated by the anti-graft office to pay P20 million each for causing the couple “sleepless nights, mental anguish, and desmirched reputation,” among others.

The couple were cleared of kidnap with homicide charges in relation to the Feb. 8 death of 6-year-old Ellah Joy Pique.

In their complaint, Berger and Esdrelon said Digal should be dismissed from service and prohibited from holding public office.

The couple plan to have their names changed since their present identities are synonymous to “child murderer and kidnapper” when searched on the Internet.

“We lived abnormal lives (since we were accused of killing Ellah Joy). Maybe, I can forgive, but I couldn’t forget what happened,” Esdrelon told reporters at the Cebu Provincial Prosecutors’ Office yesterday.

Berger said he “can’t forgive and forget” the humiliation of being falsely accused by the respondents.

“I live in this country. (But) I hope something can be done to avoid this thing from happening again. Part of the system should be cleared out,” said Berger, referring to the “poor” police investigation.

Berger, an IT systems engineer who deals with military and civil customers in Norway and the US, said that when his customers and partners search his name through Google on the Internet, Berger’s name is still linked to the death of Ellah Joy.

Charges of arbitrary detention, illegal arrest, libel, perjury, malicious prosecution, grave abuse of authority, grave misconduct, gross negligence, and violating the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials were filed against Digal and the four others.

Cebu Daily News tried to contact Digal yesterday but he was not answering calls on his mobile phone.

A text message sent to his phone was also left unanswered.

Berger and Esdrelon were earlier accused of kidnapping and killing Ellah Joy.

They were about to leave for Hong Kong for a vacation when the police came and arrested them at the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

Digal then filed charges against the couple before the prosecutors’ office.

The complaint of kidnapping with homicide were later dismissed for “insufficiency of evidence,” which is a standard phrase.

But the couple is not content with this legalese and aid prosecutors should clearly declared their innocence as basis for the dismissal.

In dismissing the complaint against Berger and Esdrelon, prosecutors considered video footage from the closed-circuit television (CCTV) of Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City.

The footage showed the couple checked in at 4:50 p.m. on Feb. 8, the time and day when Ellah Joy was seized by car-riding perpetrators outside the Calajo-an Elementary School in Minglanilla town.

Bella Ruby Santos and her British partner Ian Charles Griffiths are presently the subjects of an arrest warrant by the court after they were indicted by the prosecutors’ office in relation to the Ellah Joy case.