Vicente Camacho
SUPERIOR Court Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo has granted the request of Chief Prosecutor Chester Hinds, attorney Michael White and Assistant Public Defender Emily Thomsen to move a motion hearing in the assault case against Rep. Vicente Camacho and co-defendant Teipo Nikiti.
The hearing has been rescheduled for July 11, 2024, at 9 a.m. in Courtroom 205A.
Camacho, 62, and co-defendant Teipo Nikiti, 22, were charged with assault and battery and disturbing the peace. Camacho is represented by White while Nikiti is represented by Thomsen.
According to the prosecution, the victim, Steven Koch, suffered abrasions, bruising and pain on his head and body from the blows following the incident on Oct. 29, 2021.
Hinds has requested the court to declare that Koch is unavailable due to physical illness, citing a letter from Dr. Angeline Marie Massett.
Hinds also requested the court to allow Koch’s nontestimonial hearsay statements to be entered into evidence at trial.
But White, who represents Camacho, objected to the court declaring Koch unavailable as a witness based on the doctor’s letter alone.
Judge Govendo originally set a hearing for June 20 to determine whether Koch would be declared unavailable as a witness in this case for medical reasons. The judge said he would rule on the admissibility of Koch’s nontestimonial hearsay statements at a later time.
The June 20 hearing later was rescheduled for June 27. The parties then stipulated moving the hearing again because Camacho’s attorney had a scheduling conflict. This request was granted by the court.
Background
According to the prosecution, Koch suffered abrasions, bruising, and pain on his head and body from the blows due to the incident on Oct. 29, 2021.
Koch, his wife and daughter then sought a temporary restraining order to prevent Camacho and three other individuals “from engaging in any further physical harm, disturbance, harassment, blocking, threats and verbal abuse.”
The three other individuals were Ignacio “Ike” S. Concepcion, Fiel Reynaldo Ortiz, and Teipo A. Nikiti.
The court granted the TRO, which expired on Nov. 8, 2022.
The incident stemmed from a long-standing animosity between Koch and his brother-in-law, Concepcion, and took place near their homes on Freedom Drive in Chinatown. Concepcion is Camacho’s friend.
Hinds told the court that sometime in 2022, Koch’s health began to fail.
“He has health issues in the past. He went to the states to confirm if these issues had returned. While in the states, Koch was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism with deep vein thrombosis,” Hinds said.
He said a letter from Koch’s Veterans Administration doctor dated Jan. 26, 2024 stated that Koch was unable “to sit for any extended period of time without increasing the risk of additional clots.”
The doctor also said that Koch shouldn’t travel by plane until the clotting issue was resolved, Hinds said.
“After the [assault] incident, Koch was taken to the hospital and made statements about the incident to the doctor who did the examination. These statements are also allowable under the statements for purposes of medical diagnosis or treatment hearsay exception,” Hinds said.
“The Commonwealth asks that statements made as excited utterances and statements made for medical diagnosis or treatment, and any other statements where other hearsay exceptions apply, are allowed to be entered into evidence,” he added.
