Nyangabgwe Hospital Gynaecologist Pleads Extortion In Rape Case
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday March 9, 2020 15:11
The gynaecologist, Marco Antonio Cruz-Guerrero, 49, is charged with raping the complainant in an ultrasound room on March 10, 2019 at NRH to satisfy his lust.
Cruz-Guerrero - whose contract was left with a year to run, was terminated after he was implicated in the commission of the offence - made the startling revelation when the defence gave its side of the story on Friday. Cruz-Guerrero said his accuser wanted him to pay her $25,000-$30,000 in order for her not to press charges against him.
Cruz-Guerrero said after his accuser said that, he told her to go ahead and press charges against him because he knew that he had acted professionally at all times when he assisted his patients.
He reiterated that it was surprising that he was accused of raping his patient while he has never been accused of such a conduct in more than 25 years of practicing medicine in many countries.
Cruz-Guerrero said that a few days after he assisted the patient, he received a phone call from her adding that she was threatening to report him to the police for rape.
Cruz-Guerrero said after he examined the complainant, she requested him to give her his cellphone number because she was having problems conceiving - a request Cruz-Guerrero said he acceded to.
When Cruz-Guerrero was asked by his attorney Thekololo Letsholo why the complainant was incriminating him, Cruz-Guerrero said: “To extort money from me because when she called me, all that I could hear were the words, ‘money, police and court’. When I met her, she was with one Motswana guy I could not remember (his name), who told her that I could not have that huge amount of money because I was working for the government. The woman told the guy that since I was from Cuba, the Cuban Ambassador to Botswana would pay the money on my behalf to prevent me from going to jail”.
Asked further by Letsholo if he had any emotional attachment to the complainant when he examined her, Guerrero said that his relationship with her was only a professional one between a doctor and his patient and nothing else.
Cruz-Guerrero also told the court that ever since the charges were levelled against him, he has not been able to go to Cuba for vacation for two years.
“The matter has affected me psychologically and emotionally. I can’t even sleep because of stress. I even had to consult a specialist psychiatrist. Some of my colleagues at work have changed the way they used to relate with me. Even newspapers are publishing my predicament as if I am guilty. I want to help some of my patients whom I have diagnosed, but I am constrained because of this spurious charges,” said a sombre looking Cruz-Guerrero.
Cruz-Guerrero also stated that if at all he had had sexual intercourse with the complainant without her consent, he could not have given her his mobile number.
Quizzed by Letsholo if it was possible to have penetrated the complainant while her right thigh was lifted towards her left shoulder, Cruz-Guerrero said: “It is impossible because in such a position, she could have sustained some lacerations. The medical report shows that she has not sustained any lacerations. This is clear evidence that she was not raped. The charges against me are unfounded, vexatious and are not supported by any evidence”.When Sesafeleng Dijeng from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) put it to Cruz-Guerrero that he told the complainant to undress, Cruz-Guerrero said: “Before I examined the complainant, I thoroughly explained to her that the procedure that I was about to perform on her would require her to undress and she acceded to that”.
He added: “Yes I agree that I told her to lie on the bed and open her thighs because the procedure that I was about to perform on her warranted that… I never switched the lights off when I was examining her. I only switched the lights off after I finished examining her. When I switched off the lights, the complainant was outside the ultrasound room…”
When Dijeng put it to Guerrero that the complainant said that he inserted his penis inside her genitals without her consent and when she told him to stop Guerrero said he at least used a condom, Cruz-Guerrero protested: “Not true. That is not true”.
Dijeng pressed Cruz-Guerrero further asking him how he could respond to the assertion by the complainant that she asked him to stop because they did not consent to have sex, he said: “That is not true. Nothing like that happened”.
Cruz-Guerrero also admitted that his DNA and the complainant’s DNA were found in one of the condoms that was retrieved from the dustbin in the ultrasound room because before he inserted the condom using a probe (slender flexible rod with a blunt end used to explore, for example, an opening to see where it goes), he handled the condom using his bare hands before applying gel on his hands, then put on the gloves before inserting the probe inside the complainant’s genitals. Chief Magistrate Faith Dlamini-Ngandu agreed with the defence that the issue of extortion cropped up when the complainant gave her evidence.
This was after Dijeng said that Cruz-Guerrero was just saying that as an afterthought in order to exonerate himself from the charges.
Dlamini-Ngandu said although she could not remember the amount of money that the complainant stated when she testified, she clearly remembered that the amount was in thousands.
Dijeng then told the court that the amount that was mentioned when the complainant testified was far much less than the amount Cruz-Guerrero mentioned when he gave evidence.
Dates of judgement will be set on March 23, 2020.