The Philippines’ Department of Justice (DOJ) has dismissed the rape and attempted rape complaints filed by model-actress Deniece Cornejo against actor-host Vhong Navarro, three years after the controversial incident happened.
Cornejo had accused Navarro of raping her on Jan.17 and Jan.22 in 2014, the same night the It’s Showtime host was mauled by a group of men including bussiness man Cedric Lee while inside Cornejo’s condominium building.
In a review resolution dated Sept. 6, the DOJ reversed its original recommendation to indict Navarro on the said offenses and held that both Cornejo and her stories were not credible.
According to an ABS-CBN News report, the DOJ said evidence presented by Cornejo’s camp did not establish probable cause to indict Navarro for the crime he was accused of committing.
The department said it scrutinized the records of the case, but “such thorough scrutiny has failed to make us engender a well-founded belief that the rape and attempted rape described by complainant actually happened.”
While the charges against Navarro were dismissed, his accuser was indicted for perjury.
The DOJ conducted three investigations in connection with the case, but the charges against Navarro were dismissed in the first two investigations and Cornejo was indicted for perjury in the third.
In its review resolution, the DOJ said Cornejo “suffers from a very serious credibility issue,” as the department pointed out “major inconsistencies” in her three complaint-affidavits against Navarro.
“[Cornejo’s] story about the incident on January 17, 2014 changed from no rape (or anything amorous for that matter) happening (first complaint-affidavit), to rape being committed by force (second complaint affidavit), and finally to rape being committed rendering her dizzy and weak due to a date rape drug-laced wine (third complaint-affidavit).”
“On the other hand, complainant’s story about the incident on January 22, 2014 started from rape being committed by force (first complaint-affidavit), to absolutely having no mention about any incident (second complaint-affidavit), until the events morphed into a mere attempt to rape her (second complaint-affidavit),” the resolution read.
The DOJ also stressed that Cornejo’s first complaint-affidavit contained fewer details than her second complaint-affidavit while “[c]ommon human experience dictates that a narration given close to the incident usually contains more details than one that is given later.”
“This is because in the former, the events or details are still fresh in the narrator’s mind, while the passage of time will make a person forget details,” the resolution read.
The resolution also said that the CCTV footage obtained from Cornejo’s condominium building showed that her version of was not likely.
“In that time span, [Cornejo] claims that respondent was able to push her towards the living area of the condominium unit and pressed his entire weight against her, before her friends arrived and immediately restrained [Navarro].
“But then again… [i]n her first complaint-affidavit, [Cornejo] alleges that [Navarro] succeeded in violating her by pulling her hair and dragging her to the sofa, chasing her to the bedroom and pinning her down on the bed, and thereafter lifted one leg of her short pants and forced his hard penis into her vagina,” the resolution stated.
The DOJ also noted that another CCTV footage, recorded after Cornejo and her friends brought Navarro to a police station, showed “[C]ornejo’s actuations after the supposed rape incident… are inconsistent with the actuations and demeanor of a person who has just been violated.”
In a message sent to ABS-CBN News’ Mario Dumaual, Navarro’s manager, Chito S. Roño, said that the actor is “grateful” and “overwhelmed” by the court’s resolution.
with reports from ABS-CBN News
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