By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

SUPERIOR Court Judge Michael Bordallo cleared of negligent homicide charges the company that owns the freightliner truck involved in a multi-vehicle collision that resulted in the death of Mers Mongami in 2005.
Judge Bordallo, in a decision issued on Thursday, cleared defendants Global Recycle Company and Daniel Ty Chu of the charges that they overloaded the trailer beyond its capacity. He concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support these charges.
Global Recycle Company and Cu were indicted along with several other co-defendants after the truck transporting a container of scrap metal allegedly failed to brake while at the intersection of Routes 1 and 8 in Agana on Nov. 21, 2005.
The indictment alleged that the vehicle’s brakes were inadequate to control the movements of, and stop, the tractor-trailer, causing it to collide with several other vehicles and ultimately land on the vehicle driven by Mongami.
The indictment alleges that on that particular date, defendants overloaded the truck by approximately 20,000 pounds beyond its rated load, contributing proximately to the victim’s death.
The defense lawyer, Randall Cunliffe, moved to dismiss the case on June 6, 2006 due to the government’s failure to present exculpatory evidence.
Cunliffe argued that by failing to present accurate evidence, or failing to correct inaccurate statements by witnesses, the government prosecutor violated his duty to present exculpatory evidence.
The court agreed with the defense argument that there was a misstatement regarding the maximum weight capacity that the trailer could haul and other evidence was presented so that the grand jury would find an indictable offense.
The grand jury was given evidence as to the maximum gross weight allowed for the particular vehicle which included the tractor portion, the trailer portion, and additional weight of a container and its contents. The evidence presented, without giving the grand jury exact weights, stated that the container exceeded the gross vehicle weight allowed by statute for a two-axle tractor-trailer.
The court, however, ruled that there was a misstatement by an officer testifying that the weight of 7,400 pounds was the trailer’s maximum weight capacity.
The court found that there was no other reliable evidence to decide whether an indictable offense existed.
Judge Bordallo ruled that even the defendants failed to weigh the scrap metal loaded into the container, and the grand jury could not have found an indictable charge based on this fact alone.