Ruwaath found not guilty

Venitus “Vince” Ruwaath, center, is seen walking out of Superior Court Associate Judge Wesley Bogdan’s courtroom with his wife after a six-person jury found him not guilty sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree after just two hours of deliberation in Superior Court yesterday afternoon. (LEIGH GASES)

After just two hours of deliberation in Superior Court yesterday afternoon, a six-person jury has found Venitus “Vince” Ruwaath not guilty of the charge of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree.

After hearing the verdict, Ruwaath exploded into tears as Superior Court Associate Judge Wesley Bogdan, who presided over the case, thanked the jurors and informed Ruwaath he was free to go.

The alleged victim in the case herself burst into tears upon leaving the courtroom and almost took down the hand sanitizer dispenser next to the door. She was then hugged in a tight circle by her family members and supporters. After a few minutes, they then left the courthouse.

In an interview with reporters as he was leaving the courtroom, Chief Prosecutor Chester Hinds, who was accompanied by assistant attorney general Frances Demapa, said they will “continue to fight the good fight and be there for all victims” of sexual abuse.

“These types of cases are tough cases. There’s a single witness and sexual abuse of a minor cases is something that our office is dedicated in prosecuting, regardless of how hard it is. Now, just because the jury might not have found enough evidence, that doesn’t mean that the victim is not telling the truth. There just might not be enough evidence for the jury to feel comfortable to find him guilty,” said Hinds.

As Hinds and Demapan left, Ruwaath exited the courtroom with arms around his pregnant wife and kissed her as they walked out. When asked if he wanted to say something for the record, he said, “I just want to go home.”

After Ruwaath and his family left the courthouse, assistant public defender Emily Thomsen told the media, “The jury spoke and the justice system worked. I hope the entire family finds peace.”

Before the verdict, Ruwaath’s wife and Ruwaath himself testified in the morning.

Ruwaath was first questioned by Thomsen, who asked him if he ever touched the minor’s breast—as the girl alleged—to which he responded, “No I did not.” She briefly paused this line of questioning to allow Ruwaath to compose himself as he had started to cry. He described his relationship with the girl as good and that she used to stay over at their house on most weekends and he treated her like his own daughter. He said she used to call him “dad.”

During cross-examination, Hinds asked a series of questions that were supposed to establish that the minor had no reason to get back at Ruwaath—whether he or the minor ever argued, whether he disciplined her, and whether she disrespected him (he replied “no” to these question)—and that she can’t make be making the allegations up.

The electricity inside the courtroom got interrupted thrice during the proceedings.

In Hinds’ closing statements, he told the jurors, “We presented a case to you with both logic and emotion—a case where you can feel the emotions of a 15-year-old [minor] and her mom… a case where you can follow the logic from detective Shannon Dela Cruz, from [the minor’s] pediatrician and from her psychiatrist.”

He added, “She was able to remember and describe what happened. She not only told you, she drew it. She was able to answer questions directly. She didn’t look away. She wanted to answer these questions; you heard the defendant never argued or tried to discipline [her] and never disrespected him. There’s no motive for her to make this up. Again, like I said, she has told the story many times, and it’s been consistent. How do we know? Because her mom said the same story. Also, you’ve heard her tell everyone in this court that she knew the difference between the truth and a lie. And that she was telling the truth.”

In Thomsen’s closing statements, the minor, who was in the courtroom, tried to leave but was held back and told to remain calm by her family members and supporters.

Thomsen showed the jurors on a screen a timeline of events of the case. She said, “The story presented by the Commonwealth is simply improbable and unbelievable, yet they’re asking you to believe it beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Toward the end of her statement, she told the jury, “I hope you are willing to dig a little deeper and look at the whole picture. The Commonwealth wants to distract you [with] the oddities in the case and the lack of thorough investigation with the testimony of the psychiatrist…”

Thomsen pointed out that in June 2020, when the alleged incident happened, the minor’s parents could not have been off island; the minor could not have stayed over because there was no room for her as Ruwaath’s brother-in-law and his family lived with them; the desk Ruwaath built for the TV, which the minor said her cousins were watching at the time of the incident hadn’t been built yet until October 2020; her cousins were watching TV on chairs directly in front of the TV and said that if Ruwaath had put his hands under the minor’s shirt, it would have been a big risk.

“Even after this, [the minor] kept going back to stay with her aunt and uncle many times simply because she was close to her cousins. Now we’ve heard from Vince’s wife that she never once saw [her niece] act uncomfortable around Vince. Instead, we heard that she calls him dad and she told them that she loved him on a regular basis. [The minor] tried tell us that she called Vince ‘dad’ to hide how comfortable she was around him. But that simply doesn’t make sense. And finally, most importantly, Vince told you he treated [her] like his daughter, and he did not touch her breasts,” Thomsen added.

After their statements, the jurors broke for lunch, then returned for jury instructions and deliberations.

The trial began on Monday with a jury selection and with Dela Cruz giving the first witness testimony. The trial resumed on Tuesday with more prosecution witnesses—the minor, her mother, her pediatrician, and her psychiatrist.

According to Saipan Tribune archives, the alleged victim told authorities that the incident happened sometime in June 2020 at Ruwaath’s residence as she was watching YouTube videos in bed. The victim was 11 or 12 years old at the time of the incident and that Ruwaath allegedly fondled her breast. Ruwaath has denied the allegation.