By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

ATTORNEY General Alicia Limtiaco yesterday announced the filing of a request in court to dismiss five high-profile criminal cases involving prominent individuals prosecuted under the direction of her predecessor Douglas Moylan, citing lack of evidence, among other things.
Limtiaco said the Attorney General’s Office would file for the dismissal of the criminal cases involving former Gov. Carl T.C. Gutierrez, former Guam Memorial Hospital director John Pangelinan, former GMH administrator William McMillan, former Guam Public School System Superintendent Rosie Tainatongo, former GPSS chief financial officer Raymond Miranda, Regina Alcazar and Marian Sablan.
Chief Prosecutor Phil Tydingco also announced that they will file for the dismissal of the criminal case against Guam Election Commission executive director Gerald “Gerry” Taitano, who was charged with illegal destruction of election ballots and tampering with public records.
Gutierrez and Pangelinan were indicted together for alleged non-payment of hospital workers’ retirement contributions during their stint as head of the hospital administration.
The same charges were filed against McMillan, Tainatongo and Miranda.
Alcazar and Sablan were charged with tampering with public records and official misconduct.
Limtiaco said experienced attorneys and prosecutors at the AGO carefully examined the cases and unanimously determined and agreed that certain cases warrant civil prosecution and dismissal of the criminal cases.
“In the interests of justice, one of the missions of the Attorney General’s Office is to aggressively and successfully prosecute criminal cases based on evidence obtained thorough complete investigations to ensure that justice is served for all of the people of Guam,” Limtiaco told the media.
Tydingco said their duty as prosecutors is to seek justice, and not merely to convict.
“We are not prosecuting for headlines. We are not motivated by the publicity that we will get. We will be objective in every case that we pursue,” he added.
Deputy Attorney General Lewis Littlepage, who has been handling white collar cases in the AGO since Moylan’s term, cited the reasons for requesting the dismissal of each case.
Littlepage said in Gutierrez and Pangelinan’s case, there was a lack of evidence of criminal intent to commit a crime and the defendants did not benefit from their actions.
“Considering the lack of funds available to Guam Memorial Hospital during the period, the alleged conduct cannot reasonably be regarded as criminal by the Legislature. They only acted administratively,” Littlepage said.
He said a review of the charges in other jurisdictions revealed that such cases should be handled as civil matters.
Littlepage added that they were unable to locate any other criminal convictions in the Ninth Circuit and none in the U.S. since approximately 1930.
The same reasons were stated for the case against McMillan, Tainatongo and Miranda who, according to the prosecutors, did not benefit from their actions when they opted not to remit the hospital and GPSS workers’ Retirement Fund contributions.
The AGO instead is recommending some resolution to ensure proper action regarding payments of GMH and GPSS workers’ retirement contributions.
“This is being discussed through a civil action filed by the AGO against GMH and GPSS,” Littlepage said.
The AGO added that no further action is required against Alcazar and Sablan because GMH already handled the misdemeanor case as a personnel matter two years before the criminal charges were filed.
“Sanctions were imposed on the defendants and hospital officials have communicated that this matter has been resolved to its satisfaction,” Littlepage declared.
Littlepage said there was not sufficient evidence to pursue the case against Taitano after a careful investigation and a review of documents at the Guam Election Commission.
He said two GEC employees testified that the unused election ballots were held for the time period required by law.
Taitano was charged based on his sworn testimony that he had destroyed unused election ballots prior to the time period authorized by law.
Under the law, unused election ballots are to be kept for 30 days after the election.
When asked why it took him a long time to recommend the dismissal of the mentioned cases knowing that there was not sufficient evidence, Littlepage said there were constant reviews of cases filed but the dismissal of these cases was not unanimously decided on during Moylan’s term.
Limtiaco, however, reiterated that dismissing these criminal cases would not diminish their commitment to fully prosecute white collar or government corruption crimes.
She said they are just waiting for the lawyers of the defendants to sign the stipulations which they will submit to the Guam Superior Court as soon as possible.
Moylan did not return Variety’s calls for comment.