Cops confident Jomsap behind scapegoat scam
Hit-and-run case clues build, Weerachai says
Police are confident they have substantive evidence implicating ex-teacher Jomsap Saenmuangkhot in the “hired scapegoat” case building around her fatal hit-andrun accident.
Deputy national police chief Weerachai Songmetra yesterday held a meeting with senior police in Nakhon Phanom to discuss legal action against those involved in getting a man to perjure himself by saying he drove the car.
Ms Jomsap, 55, a former teacher in Sakon Nakhon whose request for a retrial was rejected by the Supreme Court on Nov 17, is the centre of a legal controversy after Sab Wapee confessed to being hired to say he was the driver in the 2005 fatal accident for which she was earlier jailed.
Mr Sab, 61, turned himself in and confessed to police in Nakhon Phanom on Wednesday, the first of seven people issued summonses in the perjury case.
During questioning, he told police that Suriya Nuancharoen, 54, a teacher and a close friend of Ms Jomsap, had promised to pay him 400,000 baht for his false testimony and also keep him out of prison.
Mr Suriya is also one of the seven suspects in the case. The others are Mr Sab’s wife, Jan Wapee, 59; his relatives Boonthueng Wapee, 63, and Lerd Wapee, 66; Ms Thatsanee Hanpayak, 61, who claimed the driver was a man; and Ms Jomsap’s husband Niran Saenmuangkhot, 55.
Pol Gen Weerachai said investigators have enough evidence to bring those involved in the scapegoat scam to task. Mr Suriya is the ringleader, the deputy national police chief said.
Mr Suriya allegedly hatched the plan, finding a vehicle with the same licence plate as Ms Jomsap’s pickup truck. He later approached Mr Sab to lie on Ms Jomsap’s behalf, the deputy national police chief said.
Pol Gen Weerachai expressed confidence Mr Sab’s testimony and other pieces of evidence would implicate Ms Jomsap.
According to earlier media reports, Mr Suriya had also approached a man named Prasert Roopsa-ard to take the blame for being the driver of the pickup involved in the fatal crash, after Mr Sab said he had sold his vehicle to him. Mr Suriya then took Mr Prasert to report to police at Nakhon Phanom’s Renu Nakhon police station.
Ms Jomsap was found guilty of reckless driving causing death after a pickup truck which the court found she was driving hit a bicycle, killing 75-year-old Lua Pobamrung, in Renu Nakhon district on March 11, 2005.
Ms Jomsap had her jail term reduced to 18 months due to a royal pardon two years ago after the Supreme Court upheld the first court’s sentence of three years and two months in prison in 2013.
Following her release in April 2015, Ms Jomsap took the rare move of pursuing wrongful conviction proceedings through the Justice Ministry.
The Supreme Court last Friday dismissed the case. The court said it suspected a network existed that hired out people to confess to crimes they did not commit, and the network had backed Ms Jomsap’s claim of wrongful conviction. Police yesterday took Mr Sab for a re-enactment.
According to police, Mr Sab gave them crucial information that Justice Ministry and Department of Special Investigation officials had questioned him on Feb 8-10 during the attempt to revive the case.