The point that is being made makes the mistake of assuming DR civil courts are like US civil courts with a lower standard of proof then a criminal court. If the civil case was dismissed in a US civil court it would indeed be a reasonable assumption that there would be almost no chance of a guilty finding in a criminal court. However, apparently in the DR this is not true as many times false charges are filed in both courts just to attempt to get money from the one being charged. This money has now been paid. If the criminal case proceeds and he is convicted then and only then should we believe that he is guilty. Otherwise we should jsut believe that this was all about the money.

I’m certain that OJ was a murderer. I was referring to Angel in the second paragraph. I failed to make myself clear.

 I only brought up OJ as an example that one could be found guilty in one of the trials and not the other. I guess this is the opposite of what’s mentioned above, but still I think it’s possible for one to be found guilty in a criminal trial even though they settled civil charges with the family.

Back to Angel … I really don’t think they had much of a case beyond eyewitnesses many of which are no longer in play.

Check out this link.

http://dominicanbaseballguy.blogspot.com/2009/11/angel-villalona-update.html

Blog of a grad school student who follows Dominican baseball. I don’t know how accurate his info is, but if it is the prosecution really wouldn’t seem to have much to go on.

A couple things I found interesting.

1. The writers point about extortion in the DR being rampant and the payoff not necessarily being a sign of guilt.
2. Can’t find the gun and can’t even prove Angel ever owned a gun
3. Seat fight as the only motive

Seems like a pretty difficult case for the prosecution by American standards at least.