Businessman Cedric Lee, who is accused of mauling actor/comedian Vhong Navarro, has a new legal counsel.
Photo Credit: Solar News
High-profile lawyer Raymond Fortun has agreed to represent the businessman who is facing illegal detention, serious physical injuries, grave threats, grave coercion, illegal arrest, and blackmail charges filed by Navarro.
Navarro earlier accused Lee and several others of beating him up, blackmailing him and trying to extort money from him at model Deniece Cornejo's condo unit in Taguig. Cornejo, however, said Navarro was trying to rape her.
Fortun, who made the announcement of accepting Lee's case on his Facebook account, said he views Lee as an underdog.
"I love the underdog. I enjoy the good fight, and I relish handling the toughest cases. Lawyering for me has never been about the money. It's about the pursuit for truth and justice, it's about fairness and equality," he said.
Fortun said he believes Navarro was being untruthful when he said Lee wanted to extort money from him.
He also said the actor should be truthful about his real intentions about visiting model Deniece Cornejo on January 17 and 22.
The lawyer said he finds questionable the decision of the National Bureau of Investigation to inspect Deniece Cornejo's condo unit without first informing Lee's lawyer, Howard Calleja.
Asked if he believes that no rape and no extortion occurred, Fortun said: "Yes, bro, that IS my stand as a third party observer. Atty. Calleja obviously has a different opinion. I haven't spoken to DC so I can only make an opinion. Maybe I'm wrong for both or either. I've been wrong before."
