By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

THE hearing for the appeal of dismissed police officer Jason Coburian Ortiola has been rescheduled for March to give his lawyer enough time to prepare for the merits of his petition.
The decision to continue the scheduled Jan. 19, 2007 hearing was agreed by both parties, federal Public Defender John T. Gorman, and Atty. Richard Arens, counsel for Ortiola.
Ortiola, 26, who was sentenced last year to six years of incarceration for distributing methamphetamine while in uniform, filed an appeal to reduce his sentence, saying he was denied of a counsel’s effective assistance.
He was sentenced on Sept. 20, 2006 after entering a guilty plea for distribution of methamphetamine hydrochloride while on duty and carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking.
After his arrest on June 8, 2005, he was immediately dismissed from the police department. He was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and 500 hours of drug treatment program.
In a motion he filed in December, Ortiola said his lawyer did not give him feedback nor showed any more interest in his case despite the fact that the district judge gave him 10 days to appeal his sentence.
The former police officer said when he spoke with his attorney on Nov. 28 via telephone, his lawyer only advised him to “just serve the time.”
“I felt that my attorney had denied or rejected me or any assistance which would have been effective,” Ortiola stated in his motion.
Formerly assigned in the Tamuning-Tumon precinct, Ortiola was caught selling one-half gram of “ice” for $300 while on duty, while wearing his uniform, and while carrying a Guam Police Department-issued .9mm pistol.