Rape Suspect Hangs Himself Inside Ladyville Police Station

Otto Palma

A man who was in the custody of Ladyville Police pending charges of rape was allegedly found dead in his cell at around seven-thirty on Wednesday night. The version given by Ladyville Police is that eighteen year old Otto Palma was alone in his cell when he hung himself with his white t-shirt. Official News Five policy is that we do not report suicides, but where Palma’s death is concerned there is an active internal police investigation to determine whether it is indeed a suicide. Pending the findings of that investigation, his family claims that he was murdered by police, and the suicide was staged. Mike Rudon has the story.

Mike Rudon, Reporting

Eighteen year old Ladyville resident Otto Palma was no saint, and indeed he was in Police custody on Wednesday because a thirteen year old minor claims that he raped her on Sunday. He was never charged for that rape. Instead, just before ten, his body was carried out of the Ladyville station and transported to the morgue. His mother got a call to come to the station at around eight that night.

Lorna Bardalez

Lorna Bardalez, Mother of Otto Palma

“When I reached to the station I said good night…and nobody answered so I said what happened, and they just told me to go into the office, the room that they have there. I went in there and sat there for like half an hour, and my phone kept ringing with people asking me Eva…da true your son dead, da true your son dead…people pon di street know my son dead before me weh I da the ma, reach da station and I still noh know nothing. Until when time they done do everything, done clean he up and done brutalize he and whatever they do with ah…then they tell me come identify my son. When I gawn identify my son they she dis da your son and I seh yes. I find my son with fu he white shirt wrap round ih neck by the ricket, tie from backway. I know dat da noh my son kill ihself.”

Crimes Investigation Personnel responded to a call from the Ladyville Police Station, and immediately started processing the scene in the cell-block, where it is claimed Palma had hung himself.

Lorna Bardalez

“The way how I find I he deh hook up pon di bar with the white shirt tie like this…he deh pon di bar and the knot deh outside the bar and fu he face deh turn soh…if he mi heng fu heself I expect that the tie woulda deh da front if Otto heng ihself. Otto noh crazy, Otto noh have no brain damage or nothing, so Otto woulda neva think fu kill ihself, and da noh the first time otto mi gwein da jail. This mi wah be his third time…his fourth time.”

Supt. Hilberto Romero, O.C., CIB, Eastern Division Police

“He had the t-shirt tied to the medal bar in the cellblock, which is about six and a half feet off the floor. He had tied the t-shirt to his neck and he was suspended about one foot from the floor.”

Hilberto Romero

Reporter

“You are a seasoned investigator. Is there anything in that scenario which would strike you as a little odd or can you see exactly how something like that could happen?”

Supt. Hilberto Romero

“We have the scenes of crime technician that processed the scene, and yes there is a lower bar within the cell block where one could place their feet and gain access to the upper part of the bar and then you could release your foot and you would be left suspended from that metal bar.”

While the Police sitrep is calling Palma’s death a suicide, CIB personnel aren’t so quick to close the case. Because the young man died in Police custody, there will be an intensive investigation.

Supt. Hilberto Romero

“A thorough investigation is being conducted into this matter. We have personnel from the Professional Standards Branch as well as the Crimes Investigation Branch and at the conclusion of that investigation whatever investigation needs to be followed up will be followed up. As far as I know the mother was allowed shortly after she arrived at the station to view the body as it was in the cellblock.”

Romero says that there was nothing in Palma’s behavior to indicate that he would have committed suicide. Palma had been charged previously for rape in 2013 and also in 2014. Mike Rudon for News Five.

A post mortem examination is scheduled for Friday at one in the afternoon.