Michael Brown Okinawa Assault Incident - Trial

Trial

Brown's trial began in Naha on May 26 with testimony from V. N.. Over the next three days of testimony, V. N. repeatedly stated that Brown was innocent and that she wanted to withdraw her complaint. She said that any contact between her and Brown on the night in question was consensual and that she allowed Brown to fondle and kiss her breasts. At that point, V. N. said, she began to resist and Brown became angry. V. N. testified that when she threatened to call police, Brown threw her cell phone into the river. Angry at the loss of her cell phone, V. N. stated that she then embellished the story when she told it to the guards at the Courtney main gate. V. N. further claimed that she had been coerced by police, prosecutors and her employer, a local agency that provides temporary workers for USMC bases on Okinawa, to file the charges. She said that once the charges were filed, Japanese prosecutors told her she could only withdraw the charges in court. One of the Naha judges then asked V. N. why she was not angry at Brown to which V. N. replied, "Because he didn't attempt to rape me. Before, I was angry at him for throwing away my cell phone. But not now."

The next trial hearing took place on June 4. At the hearing, Takaesu stated that Brown had arranged with the Camp Courtney officers' club manager to have sex with V. N., but that V. N. resisted Brown's advances after driving him to the secluded road off base. The Naha prosecutor said during the hearing that V. N. had insisted on pressing charges.

The next court session was on July 1. At this session, Satoshi Kawamitsu, an attorney for the employment agency that V. N. worked for, testified that he had tried to arrange a jidan settlement between Brown and V. N. in December 2002, but V. N. had insisted on pressing charges. He stated that he informed her that once the charges were filed, she would not be able to withdraw them until the trial began.

At the next court session on July 15, prosecutors submitted evidence that V. N. had received 13,500US$ from an unknown source just before she recanted the charges during the May court session. The prosecution submitted the evidence in an attempt to show that V. N.'s original statements and desire to press the charges were valid, and later attempts to recant were in bad faith. Brown then took the stand but refused to answer questions as to why his initial statements to Japanese police were different from what Takaesu later stated in court had actually happened on the night in question. The prosecutor asked Brown, "Your original statement that she made sexual advances was false?" Brown replied, "I am not going to answer that." When asked why he would not answer, Brown replied, "Because I want the opportunity for this court to see publicly the type of corruption and distortion of evidence by the police and the prosecutor." Takaesu later said that another reason for Brown's refusal to answer most of the questions was because his answers could be used by the USMC in separate military justice actions against Brown.

During a later court session on September 9, Takaesu attempted to submit medical evidence that Brown had suffered a back injury in 1999 and had a steel collar and bolts inserted around his spine. According to Brown, these injuries made it impossible to for him to assault V. N. as described in the police report. The Naha court panel of three judges agreed to issue a decision as to whether the evidence was submissable at a later date.

During another trial session later in September, the Naha court decided to accept V. N.'s pre-trial statements and accusations of Brown along with her later attempts to recant. Brown appealed this decision to the Fukuoka High Court's Naha branch, which dismissed the appeal. Japan's supreme court upheld the Fukuoka court's dismissal of the appeal in late November 2003. In October 2003, Brown requested that the three Naha court judges assigned to the trial disqualify themselves, stating that they were "prejudiced against him". The Naha court judges declined to do so, and the trial was set to resume in January 2004.

The trial resumed on January 16, 2004, when the Naha court accepted the evidence of Brown's spinal and neck injuries. Takaesu testified that it would have been physically impossible for Brown to commit a violent sexual assault on V. N.. When Takaesu called for the clothing V. N. wore the night of the alleged assault to be entered as evidence, the prosecutor, Tsuyoshi Satake, refused to present it. During a hearing in March, Brown admitted that he had lied to Japanese police about what had happened on the night in question. Brown stated that he and V. N. had engaged in some "heavy petting" in her car and that she objected when he began to take it "too far". After Brown said that he insulted her, she threatened to call the police and he grabbed her cell phone and threw it in the river.

On April 24, Takeshi Oda, representing the prosecution, made his closing arguments, describing the alleged crime as "vicious and atrocious," and calling for a three year prison sentence for Brown. Oda added that the alleged crime had affected the local community, stating, "There's a feeling of anxiety among the residents because of this incident." During the same hearing, Takaesu submitted as evidence a letter Brown wrote to V. N. apologizing for using bad language with her and giving her ¥8,000 (about 75 US$, c.2004) to replace her cell phone.

Following a 19-month trial, on July 8, 2004, Brown was convicted by the Naha District Court of "attempting an indecent act" and "destruction of property" but was acquitted of the rape charge. The court gave Brown a one-year prison sentence, suspended for three years, and fined him 1,400 US$. Chief Judge Nobuyuki Yokota said Brown was given a light sentence because the 21-year Marine veteran had no prior criminal record. Citing the victim's stated unwillingness to punish Brown, the prosecution declined to appeal the verdict. Brown appealed the verdict to Japan's supreme court, which dismissed the appeal in July 2004. Brown was permanently transferred by the U.S. military to Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia in August 2004.