Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho yesterday acquitted a construction worker accused of beating up his wife at their house on Saipan this year.<\/p>\n
At a bench trial, Camacho granted assistant public defender Matthew Meyer\u2019s motion to acquit the 34-year-old Frederick G. Cabang as to the charge of assault and battery.<\/p>\n
The judge said the court is convinced that when Cabang made physical contact with his wife, it was for the purpose of defending himself.<\/p>\n
Camacho said the government has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Cabang\u2019s physical contact with his wife was unlawful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThough rarely reported, men can and are victims of domestic violence too. Whether a man, woman or child\u2014no one deserves to be a victim of domestic violence,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n
Camacho said it is troubling for the court, that the prosecution automatically assumes the woman is the victim and the man is the abuser.<\/p>\n
Clearly, the judge noted, from words of the wife herself, she was the one who started the physical abuse.<\/p>\n
At the trial, assistant attorneys general Betty Weintraub and Emily Cohen called five witness, including defendant\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n
The wife testified that she and Cabang came from a party and they were arguing as they walked home.<\/p>\n
On the road, the wife slapped the drunk Cabang several times. At home, the argument continued and that she slapped and punched him repeatedly.<\/p>\n
After she kicked him in the groin, he punched her on the face. She renewed her attack by punching, slapping, and kicking him.<\/p>\n
She said she grabbed Cabang\u2019s private part and twisted and pulled it.<\/p>\n
She then grabbed a butcher knife and hit him on the leg. He then grabbed the knife away from her.<\/p>\n
The wife ran outside the house and called out to people for help and police.<\/p>\n
Asked why she called the police, she said she wants her husband to get in trouble.<\/p>\n
After calling in the fifth witness, the prosecution rested the government\u2019s case. The prosecution also dismissed the disturbing the peace charge.<\/p>\n
Assistant public defender Meyer then moved for judgment of acquittal as to the remaining charge of assault and battery.<\/p>\n
In granting the defense\u2019s motion, Camacho said the wife is the initial aggressor and Cabang was slapped, punched, and kicked on the face, body, and groin.<\/p>\n
Camacho said defending himself from further attack, Cabang punched her and she stopped her attack and ran outside of the house.<\/p>\n
Camacho said from the wife\u2019s own words, she called for help from people and the police just to get Cabang in trouble.<\/p>\n
The judge said Cabang did not continue any physical contact beyond what was necessary to defend himself.<\/p>\n
Camacho added that whatever happened between the couple and whether they are still staying together or not, they should get counseling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho yesterday acquitted a construction worker accused of beating…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[331,1663,1195,67],"class_list":["post-216467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-attack","tag-emily-cohen","tag-matthew-meyer","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}