US pathologist doubts

American’s ‘suicide’ in
Cebu jail
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:10 AM April 07, 2018

An American cameraman and filmmaker who died in December in a jail in Cebu

suffered blunt-force trauma, and his body had markings inconsistent with the official
account by the authorities that he hanged himself, a private US pathologist said.

The findings raised new questions about the death of Jesse Phinney.

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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 Dec. 5, and declared
it a suicide.
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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, told Reuters 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.

NBI upholds report

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.

But the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) on Friday stood
pat on its report that the American was found dead inside the restroom of his detention
facility in December 2017.

NBI-7 Director Patricio Bernales maintained that Phinney committed suicide as

revealed by an autopsy conducted by its medicolegal officer.
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“It was really suicide but I can’t elaborate on it now because we are being investigated
by different agencies,” Bernales told the Inquirer.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG-7) and the
Commission on Human Rights in Central Visayas (CHR-7) are conducting separate
investigations on Phinney’s death upon the instruction of their superiors in Manila.

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 NBI seen by
Reuters.

According to the report, the NBI began tracking Phinney after a December 2016
complaint by Cebu Vice Governor Agnes Magpale, who also cochairs 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.

‘Asphyxia by hanging’
Magpale told Reuters 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 Bernales, the NBI’s regional
director in Cebu.

Supt. Royina Garma, the CIDG-7 director in Cebu, told Reuters that her superiors in
Manila ordered her office to probe Phinney’s death.

She said they had sought all documents related to the case from the NBI in Cebu but
had yet to receive them.

While acknowledging she had no proof, Phinney’s sister, Molly Phinney Baskette, told
Reuters in a TV interview that she feared that a culture of “widespread extrajudicial
killing” was a contributing factor in his death.

Sister’s lament

Phinney was a cinematographer on more than two dozen documentaries, TV series and
reality shows on channels, including Discovery and History, according to the IMDb
movie and TV information website. Most recently, he worked on National
Geographic’s 2014-2016 series “Life Below Zero.”

He had been winding down his TV career and was looking to start a new one building
off-the-grid housing for low-income people. He had recently settled in Cebu, which he
often called “the happiest place on Earth,” his sister said.
“They said it was suicide. It was not suicide,” said Baskette, a minister at a church in
Berkeley, California, adding that she believed her brother was innocent.

Laposata said she found two ligature marks on Phinney’s neck, one more than is typical
in a suicide.

She also pointed to two distinct blood and fluid stains found on his T-shirt, whereas
only one stain pattern would be expected in a suicidal hanging, dropped from the nose
or mouth.

Laposata also pointed to a picture of Phinney when he was arrested that showed he was
not wearing a belt.

The pathologist said the autopsy done in the Philippines immediately after Phinney’s
death missed a hemorrhage on top of his head, as well as deep bruises on his back and
shoulder consistent with blunt-force trauma.

Phinney’s family raised about $34,000 via a GoFundMe page to defray the costs for the
second autopsy and to hire Insiders Corp, a Paris-based investigations firm now probing
his death in the Philippines.

Pro bono case

The company is working the case pro bono, and plans to issue a public report of its
findings in the coming weeks, said Insiders Corp spokesperson Grace Cameron.

CHR-7 Director Arvin Odron said Phinney’s brother had sent an email to CHR Chair
Chito Gascon late last year, asking his office to conduct an investigation of the victim’s
death.

“And even before there was an order for us to investigate, the CHR-7 already conducted
a motu proprio investigation after learning about Phinney’s death through the media,”
Odron said.

He said the CHR ought to investigate deaths under the custody of law enforcers.
“We want to find out whether there was a suicide or a foul play. And if there was a foul
play, who did it,” Odron said. He said their investigator already talked to Dr. Rene
Cam, NBI-7 medicolegal officer, who claimed that Phinney died of asphyxia due to
hanging.

The Inquirer tried to contact Garma but she was not available as of Friday afternoon. —
ADOR VINCENT S. MAYOL

Read more: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/165480/us-pathologist-doubts-americans-

suicide-cebu-jail#ixzz5Bwk3EuXQ
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