Murder Charges Denounced: N.Va. Parents Face Bias, Backers Say
By Tom Jackman, Washington Post Staff Writer
Originally published in the Washington Post, August 11, 2001
More than 100 supporters of the Northern Virginia couple who abandoned a baby in Delaware last year staged a rally yesterday outside the state attorney general's office in Wilmington to protest the pair's prosecution on murder charges.
The parents of Abigail Caliboso, 20, and Jose Ocampo, 19, marched and chanted along with members of Filipino American groups from Delaware and Washington as well as supporters from Norfolk, New York and Texas. A delegation of about a dozen protesters also delivered more than 200 letters to Delaware Attorney General M. Jane Brady, urging her to reconsider.
The protest focuses on the prison time Caliboso and Ocampo face, compared with the shorter terms meted out in two similar cases. Caliboso, of Woodbridge, and Ocampo, of Chantilly, face a minimum of 10 years if convicted of murder by neglect. A white couple from New Jersey, Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson, were sentenced respectively to 2 1/2 and two years after their abandoned newborn was found dead in Delaware in 1996, and a white woman from Delaware, Katherine M. Jones, was sentenced to three years for a 1995 abandonment.
"We wanted to let the people of Delaware know that the treatment of this case has fallen short of being fair and just," said Dory Mojica-Caliboso, Caliboso's mother.
Brady released a statement saying: "I appreciate the thoughtful comments expressed by the Filipino-American community, and I am equally committed that the justice system in Delaware be fair. I did not agree with the sentence the court gave in the Grossberg-Peterson case, and I do not believe that the justice system should commit the same wrong twice."
Caliboso, then a freshman at James Madison University, successfully hid her pregnancy from her family and gave birth to a girl in a Fairfax motel room March 26, 2000. She and Ocampo, then a senior at Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, told investigators they were too afraid of their parents' reactions to tell them of the birth, so they drove to Delaware hoping to leave the baby at a church. They were unaware of Delaware's previous high-profile baby abandonments.
But the young couple couldn't find a church that was both open and empty, and as night drew near, they saw a construction site where they figured the infant would be found early the next morning. Caliboso wrapped the baby in a towel and laid her on the floor of a portable toilet. The temperature then dropped to 38 degrees, and the baby died of exposure.
Caliboso and Ocampo agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter and serve five-year sentences. But at a hearing in March, the judge rejected the agreement, saying that the sentences were too harsh compared with the other cases and that the public might think the couple was treated differently because they are Filipino American.
Brady's office angrily denied that and criticized the judge. The prosecutors withdrew the plea agreement, and obtained indictments against Caliboso and Ocampo on the even harsher murder by neglect charges. Their trial is set for December.
Caliboso, eager to resolve the case and serve her sentence, voluntarily revoked her own bond and began serving time in jail, even though she hasn't been convicted. Ocampo is living with his parents in Northern Virginia.
Jon Melegrito, a national director of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations, helped organize the rally. "As Americans, we have the right to speak out against injustice," Melegrito said. "We are proud of our heritage, and this is not just a Filipino issue. It affects all minorities."
He said it was unusual for Filipinos to demonstrate publicly. "We bend like bamboo in the wind," Melegrito said. "But there's a limit to our patience."
