Topacio dares Mallonga to take lie test
DENIECE, VHONG LAWYERS:
The lawyer of model eniece Cornejo challenged hong Navarro’s lawyer yesterday to take a lie detection test to prove which of them is telling the truth on the alleged manhandling of Cornejo’s 63-year-old grandmother.
will testify and am willing to undergo a lie detection test to prove the incident,” Ferdinand Topacio told reporters before the hearing of the bail petition of Cedric Lee, imeon immer” az and Cornejo at the Taguig egional Trial Court ranch 2 1, where they are being tried for serious illegal detention.
Though the offense is non-bailable, the suspects still filed a bail petition.
Topacio was referring to the allegation of Florencia Cornejo that Navarro’s lawyer, Alma Mallonga, manhandled her outside the court’s restroom during the bail hearing on May 16.
Florencia has filed a grave coercion case against Mallonga with the Taguig prosecutor’s office.
Florencio claimed that during a break, Mallonga reportedly grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, demanding that she remove her shirt, which bore the statement, ustice for eniece, jail the rapist.”
he told reporters that her statement shirt did not refer to Navarro but insisted that she was just e ercising her freedom of e pression.
t’s my right as a grandmother. am crushed whenever see her eniece in jail,” she said. Cornejo is being held at Camp Crame.
Mallonga declined to respond to Topacio’s challenge, but insisted there had been no manhandling.
am prepared to face the charges in court,” she said, adding that she also has witnesses to prove her claim.
Meanwhile, Topacio said they uestioned the authenticity of surveillance footage of the attack on Navarro that was presented in court yesterday. Navarro was beaten up in Cornejo’s condominium unit in anuary, with Cornejo claiming he was caught by Lee and the others raping her. The rape charges Cornejo filed against Navarro have been dismissed.
He said the footage has many interruptions and they will raise in court the possibility that it was spliced.
t’s now up to the court to determine the authenticity of the closed-circuit television footage,” he said.
The bail hearing was off limits to the media.