Convicted police cadet has sentence reduced

October 25, 2013 10:31 AM
PHILIPSBURG--Former BavPol police cadet Emanuel Velasquez saw his sentence reduced as a result of his appeal to the Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten and Bonaire, Statia and Saba. Velasquez was initially sentenced in September 2012 to 48 months, 12 of which were suspended, on two years' probation, for rape and deprivation of liberty.
 
As a result of the appeal, Velasquez' sentence was reduced to 36 months, of which 12 were suspended with a probation of two years.
 
The Joint Court dissolved the initial verdict, due to a number of minor details on which the court did not agree with the Court of First Instance. The Joint Court found that Velasquez had not physically locked the victim into the room, although he had prevented her from leaving.
 
However, a retrial still led to Velasquez being found guilty of the original offences as it was found that deprivation of liberty was still achieved by Velasquez threatening the girl and preventing her from leaving the room.
 
Velasquez, who was a junior police officer at the time of the offence, was said to have taken a woman to a hotel room, where he raped her five times. He threatened the woman, who was an illegal immigrant on the island, that he would call the police if she did not submit to his wishes. She was also beaten and bitten by him.
 
Velasquez maintained throughout the trial that he was not guilty and that the sex had been consensual. Velasquez was suspended from his job as police officer after the offence.
 

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