‘Shame on OPA, Hasselback’
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- Published on Wednesday, August 08, 2012 00:00
- Written by By Andrew O. De Guzman - Reporter
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THE Office of Public Auditor’s legal counsel has declined to engage in a “verbal tussle” with Attorney General Edward T. Buckingham who accused the former assistant AG of having a “personal agenda” against the AG.
“I’ll let the court records speak for itself,” OPA legal counsel George L. Hasselback told Variety yesterday when asked to comment to the AG’s statements to KSPN on Monday.
“As far as I’m concerned,” Buckingham told KSPN, “shame on OPA, shame on George Hasselback who has a personal agenda against me. You know, let’s just get that stuff on the table.
I think the timing was not accidental. It was…last-second and it was intended to be embarrassing and distracting and interfering. Basically what happened [was] one business hour of notice. It was like something done at 4 o’clock on a Friday afternoon. I found out from [Assistant AG] Gil Birnbrich and he told me as of 4:20 that now he had heard about it. And that was the first that either one of us had heard about it.”The AG added, “I had no intention of being in Saipan on Monday morning. I had family plans which I had arranged months earlier to…leave the island.”
He said to be “summoned on Friday afternoon when it’s known that I [was] going to be leaving, with no coordination [with] our office — that’s not a question of why won’t I show up to defend something that happened two years earlier. Please.”
Buckingham added, “Do I respect [OPA’s] prosecutorial discretion? Absolutely. Do I also recognize when something is personal and retaliatory? I also recognize that. Now let’s talk about Mr. Hasselback. Mr. Hasselback was previously a member of [the AG’s office]. And when [he] resigned, one of the reasons he [mentioned] — I knew he wasn’t happy that I didn’t appoint him chief prosecutor — he told me that one of the reasons he was leaving [was] that he disagreed in my decision to terminate a person who was a friend of his. I did so for reasons that were appropriate then [and] they’re appropriate now.”
Asked by KSPN if he plans to return to the CNMI, he replied, “I’m the attorney general of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. I’m currently on leave.”
Former Lt. Gov. Jesus C. Borja, in a separate interview, welcomed the filing of charges against Buckingham.
The Democratic candidate for delegate in 2010, Borja, who is also a former associate justice, was one of the individuals who filed a complaint against Buckingham relating to the controversial “meet and greet” party the AG hosted at Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s residence for the administration’s delegate candidate.
“It’s about time,” said Borja, referring to the OPA’s complaint against Buckingham.
“I believe it was unethical and improper at that time, and I still believe until now,” Borja added.
Buckingham was also charged with misconduct in public office for approving the $492,000 sole-source contract awarded by the governor to former Secretary of Commerce Mike Ada’s Integrated Professionals Solution.
On Monday, Hasselback submitted an amended complaint against Buckingham relating to the events that unfolded on Friday, and leading to the AG’s departure on early Saturday morning, with “armed escort” services provided by the Department of Public Safety and the Commonwealth Ports Authority ports police.
Hasselback said the AG “used every tool to evade proper service of penal summons.”
On Monday after the court issued its $50,000 bench warrant against Buckingham, Hasselback told reporters that OPA “will be investigating what happened on Friday night and Saturday morning because I believe there’s good cause to investigate them. Because I believe that public personnel, funds and equipment were used in the commission of the crimes.”
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Comments
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I just hope this news doesnt just end here. Something NEEDS to be done. All this talk abt getting Fitial impeached has bn NOTHING but that, TALK. It's bn talk since his first term! And what did the people do? Vote him back into office for anothr five years. Dont u guys realize that to forget abt all ever happend therefore allowing them to get away with all this will only what fitial and his ppl have always thought, "i've violated the trust if these ppl. I've reared my ugly head far too many times to count. But, watch me get away with this. Just watch! I am THAT powerful."
4. I can't imagine how bad the morale at the AG's Office is now! Imagine having a fugitive boss who is "on leave" for an unstated amount of time, and then imagine that happening when your office is charged with enforcing the law! While Ed is so sanctimonious in his assertions here about trying to clean up the AG's office and make sure all the attorneys are doing a good job, he may want to look in the mirror and ask if he's leading by example? What if all of his AG's had criminal complaints against them and fled and went on leave? oh, PAID leave? Or are they too afraid that their contracts won't be renewed by Ed. What happens if people in the AG's office are called to be witnesses in the criminal case against Ed? What a nightmare!
2. On the other hand, Ed Buckingham's actions raise much more significant questions, at least in his attempt to avoid service of the penal summons and his failure to appear for a court hearing to which he was properly summoned.
3. I also wonder if he didn't "retract" his resignation so that he can clamp down on the AAGs and forbid them from talking to OPA about what they may know about the pending misdemeanor charges. I wonder, as others have suggested, if he retracted his leave so he could get free legal help, by insisting that his subordinate represent him in criminal proceedings, although it is the AG's job to prosecute criminal proceedings and the crimes charged against Ed are handled by another AAG specially assigned to the OPA.
John...
NEWS FLASH.....It's Obama's job to PROTECT Buckingham....NOT combat him. And the MV comments section is one of the tools he (attempts) to use to ply his trade. Many here make it point to set the record straight, however, and flag OBAMA and his Moniker Morphing RedThumb buddies for the tax-payer supported and Fitial-directed scammers they are.
Not sure if you are keeping up on Current Events, there Obama... But the only "conspicuously Absent Haouli" {sic} on island is Ed Buckingham
You do crack me up......
OSAMA... Enough of your mute and impedent red-thumbing rage... Mr. Pubilic asks a fair question...
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT THE OBSCENE LEVELS OF OFFICIAL CORRUPTION IN THE CNMI.... SPECIFICALLY BUCKINGHAM AND FITIAL'S CLEAR INVOLVEMENT IN HIS FLIGHT FROM JUSTICE....
THESE, OBAMA, ARE FAIR QUESTIONS. They are clearly questions that scream for an answer.
Stop the deflection, Stop the obfuscation, Stop with the Red (as it were) Herrings.... The CNMI is becoming known world around as a Third World cesspool of corrupt politics and a place NOT to do business.
Your boss is in NO small way responsible for this perception. MassageGate.... Welcoming an On The Lam A/G Chief Law Enforcement Officer back . His disgusting racist ramblings in C/C.. And here you are.. along with your Red Thumbers and Aliases, enabling him.
Answer the questions... Man-up