Ortiz case showcases Dominican justice system
Defendants must run gantlet of reporters
By 
THE MEDICAL CARE DAVID ORTIZ is receiving in Boston as he recovers from a gunshot wound is some of the best in the world, but the same superlatives cannot be used in describing the criminal justice process unfolding in the Dominican Republic to bring the gunman and others to account for the attack.
The scene playing out around the courthouse in Santo Domingo has provided the news media with juicy tidbits – like the accused gunman spinning his version of events from a jailhouse window – but it has added more chaos to an already complicated case.
Shouting from his holding cell to someone filming with a cellphone, defendant Rolfi Ferreira Cruz claimed that Ortiz wasn’t his intended target, and suggested he was only given a description of the person he was hired to shoot.
CBS This Morning, which obtained the cellphone video, also showed the gantlet that defendants need to pass through to get from courthouse to jail. Correspondent Mola Lenghi had the gall to describe the prisoner transfer as “more like a rugby scrum” after fully participating in the fracas, frantically and repeatedly asking Ferreira Cruz “did you do it?” as authorities hustled the defendants into pickup trucks.
Even in the Dominican Republic, which has one of the world’s highest murder rates, Ortiz traveled with little or no security detail, reports the Associated Press. Eddy Vladimir Feliz Garcia, the alleged motorcycle getaway driver, was beaten down and held by a crowd of people around Dial Bar and Lounge, the outdoor venue where the attack occurred Sunday night.
The Boston Globe has a team of reporters digging into the case, who report that more than a dozen people are implicated in the shooting. The list includes a man named Luis Rivas-Clase, aka “the Surgeon,” who is one of four suspects still at large. Rivas-Clase has been accused of ordering a hit on a man in Reading, Pennsylvania, last year, and a police official there said Rivas-Clase is in charge of a criminal organization.
One theory, according to the Globe, is that the plot to kill Ortiz, which allegedly involved a $7,800 payout to the hired killers, was cooked up by two prisoners – Jose Eduardo Ciprian Lebron, jailed on murder charges, and Carlos Rafael Alvarez, who is imprisoned for robbery.
None of the coverage has spelled out a motive for the hit, but if the criminals who arranged the operation wanted notoriety, they have succeeded in that.
The case has also brought attention to the way criminal justice is practiced in the Dominican Republic, a country with strong cultural and familial ties to Massachusetts.
Nine defendants made an initial appearance in court Thursday evening. The Globe reports the courthouse is “part of a makeshift operation that includes a small, dark jail cell where most detainees wait before they make their initial appearances before a judge in a trailer in the parking lot. The cell, where detainees are visible from behind an iron gate, is cordoned off by barbed wire, and reeks of sweat and urine.”
Maria Cramer, a court reporter covering the case for the Globe, tweeted that a lawyer told her the “entire process — from arraignment to the final decision on culpability — is closed to reporters.”
While the justice system in the United States remains plagued by its own set of myriad problems, the level of medical care available at certain US hospitals is virtually unparalleled.
The medical story has been a good one so far, and fans are no doubt anxious to hear directly from the retired ballplayer once he feels healthy and comfortable enough to do that. The criminal justice story, however, has had some worrying aspects at this early stage.