* Prostitute was run over in Dec. by US embassy van outside
club
* Says embassy personnel fled scene, left her behind injured
* U.S. says woman instead tried to enter van once it was
moving
* Case adds to embarrassment after Colombia prostitute
scandal
By Peter Murphy and Ana Flor
BRASILIA, April 26 (Reuters) – A former Brazilian prostitute
plans to sue the United States embassy and five of its personnel
for injuries sustained outside a strip club late last year,
complicating the second of two embarrassing incidents to emerge
recently involving American officials and sex workers in South
America.
Romilda Aparecida Ferreira, 31, and her lawyer said they
plan to file suit for injuries, medical expenses, lost income,
and psychological trauma after an embassy van ran over her and
left her stranded in the club parking lot with a broken
collarbone, punctured lung and other injuries. The incident
occurred Dec. 29 when an embassy driver was dispatched to the
club to pick up three marines and one civilian staffer.
A civil suit would compound a case in which Brazilian
prosecutors have already said they are considering criminal
charges, including assault and failure to provide assistance to
an injured person. It also threatens to further tarnish the
image of overseas U.S. personnel in the wake of a separate
scandal involving U.S. Secret Service members and prostitutes in
Cartagena, Colombia, earlier this month.
Little noticed at the time, the incident in Bras -lia,
Brazil’s capital, gained traction this week when a local
reporter asked U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, then on a
visit to the country, about what happened. Panetta said the
United States had investigated the matter, “severely punished”
the marines, and pulled them out of Brazil.
Few additional details from the incident have been provided
by U.S. officials, including the nature of an unresolved offer
Ferreira’s lawyers say was made by the embassy to compensate her
in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement.
But the former prostitute, still recovering from surgery and
now starting a career as a pet shop owner, detailed her account
of the evening to Reuters in an interview Wednesday at her
attorneys’ office.
Ferreira said she, along with her co-workers, first met the
four Americans over tequila and whiskey inside the strip club.
“Like any other night, we sat down with the guys to drink and
chat,” she said.
Before long, she added, “we settled on a price and whose
house we would go to.” But problems ensued when the group
proceeded to leave the club.
Ferreira said she was forced out of the van by one of the
men when she attempted to join some of her colleagues, who had
already entered the vehicle. She said she panicked when the man
grabbed her, so she attempted to hold onto the van, but fell to
the ground, hit her head and lost consciousness.
After she fell, her lawyers said, the man told the van
driver to go. The vehicle’s back wheel then drove over Ferreira.
The attorneys said the driver probably did not realize she was
there.
The van briefly stopped after running over the woman, they
added, and then drove off for good.
In a Washington press briefing on Wednesday, a U.S. State
Department spokeswoman confirmed Ferreira was run over, but gave
a conflicting account of one particular. Ferreira, she said,
tried to open the door once the van was already moving.
TRAUMATIZED
Ferreira, who worked as a stripper at the club for three
years, said she was traumatized by the incident, which kept her
hospitalized for 12 days.
Upon her release from the hospital, she said, embassy
officials visited her to seek her account of the incident and
then offered her nearly 4,000 reais ($2,100), which she
rejected. Her lawyers said they then followed up with the
embassy, but failed to reach an agreement on payment and a
condition that would have required Ferreira to sign a
non-disclosure agreement.
A U.S. embassy spokesman confirmed there was an inconclusive
discussion about compensation, but was unaware of the exact
details.
Ferreira’s lawyers said they are monitoring prosecutors’
progress with potential criminal charges before proceeding with
a lawsuit. Damages, they say, would help compensate for
Ferreira’s injuries, mental suffering and costs she incurred in
her recovery.
Using savings and a loan from a friend, Ferreira said, she
paid 18,000 reais ($9,574) for corrective surgery on a botched
first attempt to set her broken collar bone. The bone still
appears swollen and dark scars still mar her elsewhere, even her
legs.
Ferreira also quit her life as a prostitute and used the
rest of her money to start a pet shop and grooming service.
“I won’t go back to it,” she says of her former life, adding
that the scars and a misshapen bone now make her feel
self-conscious. “How could I dance again?”
($1 = 1.8806 Brazilian reais)
(Additional reporting by Hugo Bachega; Editing by Paulo Prada
and Lisa Shumaker)
