July 24, 2003

Marine pleads guilty of rape, assault of Okinawan woman

Associated Press


TOKYO — A Marine pleaded guilty Thursday to beating and raping a Japanese woman on the southern island of Okinawa two months ago, his lawyer said.
Lance Cpl. Jose W. Torres, 21, faces at least three years and possibly life in prison after pleading guilty to the charge of rape resulting in injury.

Torres, whose hometown has not been released, entered his plea at the opening session of his trial at the Naha District Court, said his lawyer, Miyatomi Harushima. Torres’ next court date is Aug. 13, Harushima said.

Torres attacked his 19-year-old victim during the early hours of May 25 in the Okinawan town of Kin. He was accused of punching her and breaking her nose before raping her in an alley.

Crimes involving American troops are a sensitive issue on Okinawa, where a heavy U.S. military presence long has been a source of friction with residents. Okinawa, about 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo, is home to about half of the nearly 50,000 American troops in Japan.

The crime prompted Japan’s government to call for tighter discipline among U.S. military personnel in Okinawa. American authorities handed Torres over to local police before he was formally charged in an apparent move to stem local anger.

The U.S. military normally retains custody of personnel suspected of crimes until they are indicted but can hand them over to local authorities sooner if the alleged crime is deemed serious enough.

The rape of a schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen in 1995 sparked outrage on Okinawa and led the two countries to agree that U.S. authorities would give “sympathetic consideration” to requests for early handovers.






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Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.


Sempers,

Roger