URASOE, Okinawa — Marine Maj. Michael Brown’s appeal of his July conviction, of attempting an indecent act with an officers club barmaid, has been dismissed for a second time.
Defense Attorney Toshimitsu Takaesu on Monday said the Fukuoka High Court upheld a lower court decision to toss out Brown’s appeal on technical grounds. Without going into the merits of the case, the Naha court had ruled that Takaesu filed the wrong paperwork with the court, submitting a photocopy instead of an original document.
Takaesu said Brown has indicated he’ll appeal to Japan’s Supreme Court.
Brown, 41, originally was charged with attempting to rape a Philippine waitress who worked at the officers club on Camp Courtney in November 2002. After a protracted trial, in which the woman retracted the story she gave police, Brown was found guilty in July of attempting to commit an indecent act with the woman.
The charge stemmed from an incident that occurred inside the woman’s car after she offered to drive Brown from the club to his off-base home and they parked along a quiet, riverside road to talk.
Brown also was found guilty of destroying the woman’s cell phone by throwing it into the river after she said she’d call police — a statement the barmaid since has said was a joke.
Brown was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for three years. He appealed, arguing the Naha District Court lacked authority to find him guilty of a lesser charge. Assigned to Camp Courtney, he has remained on administrative hold on Okinawa pending the outcome of the appeals.
Takaesu had argued that the photocopy shouldn’t have been grounds for rejecting the appeal because a court clerk mixed up the documents after stamping them as received just before the filing deadline. The lawyer said the clerk gave him the original and filed the copy with the court. But the Fukuoka High Court ruled both documents were copies and the original paperwork has disappeared.
“The two documents ... were both duplicate copies, including the signature of the defendant,” the high court ruled.
Takaesu said Brown was enraged by the latest ruling. In a letter to the Supreme Court of Japan released to the press Monday, the Marine railed against the courts.
“From the moment I was first accused, I have been treated terribly by the Japanese judicial system,” he wrote, citing alleged improper conduct by police and prosecutors. “I have endured this long on the belief that ultimately, at the appellate level, the courts will be insulated from political pressure and give me fair treatment in accordance with the rule of law.”
He accused the appellate courts of “taking on the role of adversary” and finding the photocopy excuse a flimsy basis for dismissing his appeal.
