MANILA/NEW YORK: An American cameraman and film-maker who died in December in a jail in the Philippines suffered blunt-force trauma, and his body had markings inconsistent with the official account by Philippine authorities that he hanged himself, a private US pathologist said.
The findings raised new questions about the death of Jesse Phinney on the Philippine island of Cebu. Law enforcement officials there said they found the 42-year-old Boston native hanging in the bathroom of a detention facility where he was being held on December 5, and declared it a suicide.
Phinney’s family, suspecting foul play and believing he was incapable of the alleged crimes that prompted his arrest, hired a Providence, Rhode Island-based forensic pathologist and a private investigations company to look into his death.
The pathologist, Dr Elizabeth Laposata, said in a recent interview that an autopsy she performed in the United States found deep bruises on Phinney’s body, caused within three or four hours of his death, and an unexplained mark on his neck. She said she believed the evidence indicated that Phinney did not take his own life.
“No medical examiner would be comfortable saying this is a suicidal hanging because there are all these unexplained things,” said Laposata, a former chief medical examiner for the state of Rhode Island who is now in private practice and regularly testifies at murder trials.
The day before he was found dead, Phinney had been arrested on suspicion of violating human trafficking and child abuse laws, according to a report by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) seen by Reuters. The NBI is the Philippine equivalent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to the report, the NBI began tracking Phinney after a December 2016 complaint by Cebu Vice Governor Agnes Magpale, who also co-chairs a women’s protection group. The report included affidavits from a mother and child who said Phinney sometimes had minors sleep at his home, took pictures of them, and gave them gifts.
Magpale said in a text message that she referred Phinney to the NBI, which she said is standard procedure when her office is presented with allegations of human trafficking or other crimes.
“I was told NBI did surveillance work for some time. When NBI took over, they filed the case,” she said.
The NBI’s report said Phinney was found hanging by a belt and that an autopsy commissioned by the NBI determined the cause of death was “asphyxia by hanging.” The report was sent to the US embassy in Manila by the NBI’s regional director in Cebu, Patricio Bernales.
“I thought this case was closed, but the local police is now conducting an investigation and the human rights groups here are also asking a lot of questions,” Bernales said, referring questions about the case to NBI headquarters in Manila. Bernales did not name the human rights groups.
Royina Garma, a police superintendent in charge of criminal investigations in Cebu, said that his superiors in Manila ordered his office to probe Phinney’s death. He said they had sought all documents related to the case from the NBI in Cebu but had yet to receive them. — Reuters
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