AIDS Institute trial press 05/06/99

Kouri trial 05/06/99

Sotomayor's assistant testifies on fund raising

By MARTY GERARD DELFIN
of the STAR Staff

A former San Juan AIDS Institute assistant acknowledged Wednesday that city officials Would compel employees at the entity to purchase fund-raising tickets for birthday dinners for former San Juan Mayor Hector Luis Acevedo.
Sonia Tolinche testified that doctors from the San Juan municipal health division would send over birthday invitations that were to be purchased by the San Juan AIDS Institute.
Tolinche served as assistant to operations manager Jeannette Sotomayor.
She said that Drs. Ruben Guadalupe and Valentin Rivera would phone the institute on behalf of Municipal Health Director Dr. Pedro Alfredo Borris demanding money for the tickets.
"I told Mrs. Sotomayor and she told me that a check had been made out," the witness said under cross examination by lawyer Benny Frankie Cerezo.
The government is expected to wrap up its case today in the trial against Sotomayor, coordinator Yamil Kouri and property custodian Armando Borel.
The three are accused of embezzling $1.4 million in federal monies destined to AIDS patients, prevention and education.
The trial enters its 34th day with the prosecution expected to call to the stand Edzel Zamuido, a personnel assistant at the institute.
Tolinche also contradicted testimony given two months ago by another witness regarding an alleged pay off to the New Progressive Party with San Juan AIDS Institute money.
I She testified, however, that she never saw any money exchanged between comptroller Angel Corcino Mauras and coordinator Yamil Kouri.
On March 16, Corcino testified that he showed Tolinche a large bundle of cash at the institute before giving it to Kouri who told the comptroller that he was taking the money to New Progressive Party headquarters.
"Based on what he told me, I perceived he carried money with him," said Tolinche, adding she never saw the cash and he never showed it to her.
Tolinche said she and her boss did see Corcino talking to Kouri, who was in his car, at the institute's parking lot at Stop 19 in Santurce.
During his own testimony, Corcino said that he gathered $50,000 in cash through check laundering so that Kouri could turn the money over to the NPP for its 1992 campaign.
While Tolinche said she didn't know of any money being funneled to politicians, she said the incident in the parking lot took place in 1993.
Tolinche is the fourth witness to come forward to say that she didn't tell the truth before the House of Representatives that was investigating the AIDS Institute in 1994.
She said that Sotomayor told her and Milagros Leon Garcia, another institute employee who has also been indicted, to memorize a list of questions and answers so that they can be consistent in their testimony before the House.
Tolinche also followed the same script when she appeared before the Comptroller's Office in April 1997, but got nervous when she was summoned to appear before the grand jury in August.
"I was going crazy when they called me from the comptroller's. I consulted with an attorney and he told me you go there and tell the truth," she recalled.
At one point, when defense lawyer Francisco Rebollo Casalduc was cross examining her, Sotomayor began sobbing when Tolinche began describing their friendship as a trustful one.
Tolinche's testimony also touched a raw nerve with Borel who shook his head in disbelief when she said he was hired to be Kouri's spy at the institute.
At one time, as she tried to settle a dispute between two nurses in her office, Tolinche said she saw her door wobbling back and forth.
"I thought it was an earthquake," she said. "It was [Borel] who had his ear against the door listening inside the office. From then on, I knew he had an agenda."

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