At Brown trial, MP recounts details of night in question

[thedrifter]

At Brown trial, MP recounts details of night in question


By David Allen and Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, March 4, 2004


NAHA, Okinawa ? A Marine military policeman testified Tuesday that he saw Maj. Michael Brown with Victoria Nakamine less than an hour before she reported someone had attempted to rape her.

And when she drove to the front gate of Camp Courtney the night of Nov. 2, 2002, she gave the MPs a description of an assailant that did not match Brown, said Staff Sgt. Robert R. Bergen during more than five hours of testimony.

Nakamine also claimed she did not know her assailant?s name, Bergen said.

Defense attorneys said they hoped Bergen?s testimony would support their contention that Nakamine, 41, a barmaid at the base officers club, never intended to file charges against Brown.

Brown, also 41, has been on trial on charges of attempted rape and destruction of private property for more than a year. Assigned to the command element of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, he was indicted Dec. 19, 2002 and pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Nakamine recanted the story she had told Okinawa police when she took the stand last May, claiming police and prosecutors coerced her into signing statements that Brown attacked her when she parked her car on a lonely road along the Tengen River. She had offered to give him a ride to his home after the club closed.

She said Brown had fondled her, but stopped when she complained and apologized to her. The story about an attempted rape was something she made up when she went to report that her cellular phone had been destroyed, she said.

Brown threw the phone out of her car when Nakamine had jokingly threatened to call police, the defense claims.

Defense attorney Toshimitsu Takaesu contends Brown and Nakamine had an understanding to meet each other after the club closed.

In his testimony, Bergen said he was on the night shift patrolling Camp Courtney when he saw Nakamine go into the Tengen Castle restaurant, also located on the base, sometime after 1 a.m. The manager of the officers club testified Monday that it was common practice to stop at the Tengen Castle after work to count the night?s proceeds.

Bergen said he left the restaurant parking lot and patrolled nearby streets, spotting Brown walking up the hill to the restaurant.

About five minutes later he said he stopped again at the front of the restaurant and saw Brown inside with Nakamine.

Shortly after 2 a.m. he saw Nakamine for the third time that morning when she drove up to the front gate and said she wanted to report a rape.

?When she first approached she looked pretty calm,? Bergen said. ?The first words she said was ?I want to report a rape.?

?I said, ?Excuse me, somebody raped you?? And then she said, ?No, I want to report an attempted rape.??

Bergen said she did not appear to have been involved in a struggle. The only mark he could see was a small ?pin prick? on a forearm.

?Was she trembling? Did she appear terrified?? asked Takaesu.

?No, not at all,? Bergen said. ?It seemed to me the entire time she was telling her story she was turning her head away and trying not to make eye contact. After listening to everything she had to say, I got the feeling that something had happened, but not the way she was trying to say.?

Because the alleged crime happened in Gushikawa, Okinawa police were immediately called, Bergen said.

After Tuesday?s hearing, co-counsel Takashi Takano said Bergen?s testimony proved there was not enough time for Brown to have done everything Nakamine claimed in her original report to Okinawa police.

?It means that the period of time the two were allegedly at the crime scene was much shorter than what was described in the statements prepared by police and the prosecutor,? Takano said. ?It gives Brown an alibi.?

He said the prosecution attempted to hide Bergen?s statements from the defense.

?Bergen gave very important evidence to both police and prosecutor immediately after the alleged incident occurred,? Takano said. ?However, the story that Brown and the woman were together at Tengan Castle restaurant was revealed for the first time today.

?The prosecution did not submit Bergen?s statements to the court, knowing it was a disadvantage to their case,? he said. ?Instead, they kept it to themselves for almost two years.?

The trial is expected to continue until Thursday, then resume next Monday. The defense is to wrap up its case March 26.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp...4&article=20813

[thedrifter]

Judge allows plaintiff?s letter absolving Brown


By David Allen and Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, March 5, 2004


NAHA, Okinawa ? Victoria Nakamine came to the defense Wednesday of the man she accused of attempting to rape her 16 months ago.

The three-judge panel hearing the case in Naha District Court accepted as evidence a letter Nakamine wrote in May pleading to have the charges dropped against Marine Maj. Michael Brown.

Nakamine, 41, wrote the letter the day before she took the stand to testify for the prosecution.

At the time, the court took the letter ? in which Nakamine states she didn?t have the intention of punishing Brown ? under advisement, but ordered her to testify. During her May testimony via closed-circuit television, she said she had been coerced by police, prosecutors and her employer, an agency that provides temporary workers for Marine Corps bases on Okinawa, to file the charges.

Brown is accused of attempting to rape her early Nov. 2, 2002, after she drove him to his home in Gushikawa after the Camp Courtney Officers Club closed. Nakamine worked in the club as a waitress and cashier.

In original police statements she said Brown attacked her when she parked the car to talk and threw her cellular phone out of the car and into the Tengen River when she threatened to call police.

But that?s was not what really happened, she stated in the 11-page, handwritten letter.

?The criminal complaint was not based on my voluntary will and the police and the prosecutor know it,? she wrote. She said her statements were ?mainly exaggerated or created by the policemen.?

?Most of the act done by Brown is [sic] under my consent,? she wrote.

She said officials of the company she worked for, Plenty Staff, gave her 150,000 yen, about $1,300, and advised her to file a complaint against Brown. She said she was told that she would be able to collect compensation from Brown only if she filed charges.

?The company is pushing me to file a complaint,? she wrote. ?If I reject it I may lose my job. It is another worry.?

Brown, a 20-year Marine veteran, was indicted Dec. 19 and held in the Naha Detention Center until bail was granted after Nakamine recanted her story on the stand in May. He is now restricted to Camp Courtney.

Nakamine wrote that she consistently told prosecutors that she did not want to press charges and was ignored.

?My little mistake caused a big problem,? she concluded.

Also accepted as evidence Thursday were two affidavits Nakamine provided to Brown?s defense attorneys in July and September.

Her answers to the questions asked by defense attorney Toshimitsu Takaesu repeated her complaint concerning police, prosecutors and her employer.

?I have never thought to put Major Brown into prison,? she wrote. She also wrote that testimony by Plenty Staff attorney Satoshi Kawamitsu during earlier hearings were lies.

?Attorney Kawamitsu testified that I made power of attorney to represent me,? she wrote. ?But I did not make any paper.?

?I had already made up my mind to tell the truth,? she said. ?The truth is, Major Brown never tried to rape me.?

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp...4&article=20834


Sempers,

Roger