Filipina fined for threatening manager

17/08/2007 The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Filipina Ederlina Hampac Katzengruber was getting frustrated over the time her condominium management was taking to fix her unit's leaking roof.

To vent her frustration, Katzengruber confronted a manager with a knife and threatened her.

For this Katzengruber, 38, was fined RM500 by a magistrate's court here yesterday.

The incident happened at Jodie Monica Ho Mei Yi's office office in Jalan Pantai Permai on Dec 11 last year.

The court was told that Katzengruber pointed the knife at Ho and told her “Jodie, do you see this?”

She also said it was “easy to stab someone in the neck” and “don’t care being put in the jail.”

She told Ho she was not satisfied with the condominium's management for failing to repair her unit’s leaking roof for four days resulting in some things she kept at her balcony to be wet.

Katzengruber lived in the unit with her Australian husband under the My Second Home programme.

Ho lodged a police report the next day after learning that Katzengruber had also threatened workers carrying out the repairs.

In the court yesterday, Katzengruber admitted to committing criminal intimidation on Ho with the knife and putting her in fear that day.

Her lawyer Jagjit Singh said Katzengruber committed the offence due to frustration with the management who failed to repair the roof using the correct tiles.

“When she saw that different tiles were used (for repairs), she was upset and asked them to bring the original tiles but nothing was done,” he said.

He said Katzengruber realised her mistake and that her 58-year-old husband had even written an apology letter to the management.

Prosecuting officer C/Insp Suhaimi Kushairi, who confirmed that Katzengruber was a first offender, asked the court to impose an appropriate sentence on her.