Frances Quichocho completes her testimony; parties rest

Frances Quichocho finally completed her testimony yesterday in federal court, allowing the parties in the racketeering lawsuit filed by Jung Ja Kim against Frances and her husband, attorney Ramon K. Quichocho, to rest their cases.
After Kim’s counsel, attorney Colin Thompson, finished cross-examining Frances, Thompson and co-counsel Robert T. Torres called Kim back to the witness stand. After Kim’s testimony, both sides rested at 3:45pm.

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona instructed the jurors to return today, Wednesday, at 10am, for closing arguments.

During yesterday’s continuation of Thompson’s cross-examination, Frances maintained that she is the sole owner of Latte Stone LLC, which used to operate the Latte Stone Poker on Rota.

Kim claimed that she formed Latte Stone LLC in October 2008 upon Ramon Quichocho’s advice, and had it registered under Frances’ name.

When shown a copy of Latte Stone’s tax return where Frances apparently underreported its total revenue, Frances said she was just following the figures that Kim provided her.

“I followed what Kim taught me,” she said.

Frances agreed with Thompson that Latte Stone’s gross revenue was $690,000, but only $339,000 was deposited in the company’s bank account.

She said a lot of cash was taken from the company for business and personal expenses. She said she’s unsure how much was pulled out for personal expenses.

Frances said she reimbursed Kim for her expenses at Latte Stone whenever she received receipts from her.

When shown several checks, including $40,000, that were deposited either to her personal bank account or her joint account with her husband, Frances could not remember the source of the money—whether they came from Latte Stone or from her husband’s law firm.

Thompson also showed three checks totaling $31,000 that were deposited into the couple’s joint account three days in a row. Frances said she does not remember the source of the income, whether from Latte Stone or from the law firm.

Frances admitted that she took money from Latte Stone and donated them to close friends and relatives.

She said she was not sure whether she paid her daughter’s tuition out of Latte Stone’s account. Thompson then presented several checks that Frances paid for her daughter for tuition out of Latte Stone’s account. She then admitted the payments.

Frances also admitted she paid all their phone billings and the salary of their then-houseworker out of Latte Stone’s account. She acknowledged donating money to Rep. Janet Maratita (Cov-Saipan), Felipe Atalig, and several others as donations or gifts out of Latte Stone’s account.

Frances admitted, among other payments, that she paid her personal loan at Isla Financial Service out of Latte Stone’s account.

Frances reiterated her earlier testimony that she deceived Kim by pretending to be Ramon Quichocho in the chats to figure out whether her husband and Kim were having an affair.

On attorney Michael Dotts’ questioning, Frances said she paid $50,000 check to Kim for Latte Stone’s five poker machines and then $50,000 cash for the other five poker machines.

Dotts is counsel for Frances and the Quichocho law firm.

Frances said that Kim was supposed to be reimbursed for her $168,000 contribution to Tan Dingo LLC, but she did not confirm her membership and kept the revenues of the company.

Kim claimed that she purchased in April 2008 Tan Dingo LLC that the Quichochos and Joaquin Atalig formed. The company also operated a poker business.

Kim testified that when Frances and Ramon Quichocho returned from their “reconciliation trip” in the Philippines in February 2009, Ramon Quichocho did not stop communicating with her.

Torres showed her a copy of a long chat dated Feb. 20, 2009. Kim recognized it as Ramon Quichocho’s chat with her after the Philippine trip. In that chat, Kim said Ramon Quichocho stated, among other things, that he loves her and misses her.

On the harassment allegations that the Quichochos complained about, Kim admitted she installed a surveillance camera on the second floor of her leased building to protect her assets and that she actually saw, through the surveillance camera, that it was Frances who was breaking the flower plots by kicking them near the stairs.

Torres asked Kim if the Quichochos ever told her that she was interfering in their marital relationship and she replied “no.”

“I’m the one who got harmed. I was harmed emotionally and financially. Ray and Frances shattered my trust,” Kim said.

Dotts showed chats between Kim and Ramon Quichocho dated Dec. 11, 2008, a day after Ramon allegedly raped her in his apartment unit. Dotts pointed out that in that chat Kim was laughing with her “rapist.”

“Yes, it’s correct,” said Kim, and disclosed that after that rape incident, she and Ramon Quichocho actually proceeded to Godfather’s that night for some drinks, then they had consensual sex.

Kim earlier also testified that Ramon Quichocho raped her at a Guam hotel and had consensual sex with him in his car, and that she and the Quichochos had a threesome twice.

Ramon Quichocho denies having sex with Kim.