A magistrate in Kowloon City Courts sidestepped a complaint by a Filipino theft suspect that his fingerprints were forcibly lifted by the police after he resisted them before his scheduled court appearance on June 10.
Marcelo Ortega Jr, was due to appear in the morning along with co-defendant Jolito Mania before Principal Magistrate Peter Law for the transfer of their case to the District Court.
The Filipino tourists were facing charges of attempted theft and breach of deportation order following their arrests earlier this year in an apparent pickpocketing sortie.
Officers in the courthouse tried to take Ortega’s fingerprints but he struggled, forcing a postponement of the hearing until after lunch break.
When the duo finally appeared in court, Ortega told the court, through the court-appointed defense counsel, that he wanted to complain against the officers’ forcible taking of his fingerprints.
But Law said he could only act on the offenses for which he and Mania were charged.
The proper venue for the defendant’s complaint would be the Complaints Against Police Office.
Law then proceeded transferring the case, along with relevant documents and exhibits, to the District Court.
Meanwhile, Law shortened the adjournment of a separate theft case against two other Filipino tourists, after the duty lawyer assigned to the defendants objected to the prosecution’s move to delay the hearing for six weeks.
The prosecutor said she needed more time to wait for results of the fingerprint analysis, further legal advice and CCTV footage of the crime.
Wilson Lacharon and Joseph Erwin Dacidilla were arrested by police on May 14 after they allegedly stole the money that a man had just withdrawn from a Bank of China ATM.
No further details of the incident were discussed in court.
The prosecutor said she objected to the grant of bail to Lacharon and Dacidilla because of the serious nature of their offense and that both had been issued deportation orders.
But the defense counsel said her clients did not want to wait a further six weeks for their next court appearance.
The prosecutor said fingerprint results would take that long.
She was also awaiting the bank’s reply to a request for CCTV footage relating to the crime.
Law backed the defense’s position and gave the prosecution just four weeks to obtain the fingerprint analysis and CCTV footage.
He set the next hearing to Jul 8.
