STACEY Laniyo, who was found guilty of one count of child abuse by a jury, wants another trial, saying she did not receive a fair trial due to prosecutorial misconduct.
Laniyo, through attorney Mark Scoggins, filed a motion for a new trial on July 1, 2021.
According to Scoggins, “A new trial is warranted because of the pervasive, egregious, intentional, unethical, and irresponsible prosecutorial misconduct that permeated every aspect of the trial in this matter, beginning even with the jury selection [that] robbed Ms. Laniyo of her right to due process under the U.S. and CNMI Constitutions.”
Scoggins alleged that the prosecutor — Assistant Attorney General Coleen St. Clair — “engaged in egregious misconduct from jury selection to the end of the trial.”
Scoggins added, “Probably the single most damaging witness testified that Ms. Laniyo had punched the three-year-old in the face and split his lip even though the witness had zero personal knowledge of the alleged incident. The prosecutor knew this and presented this inadmissible evidence anyway. The prosecutor also argued that the defense, which worked very hard during the trial to keep inadmissible evidence from the jury, was merely trying to prevent the jury from knowing the truth. The prosecutor even interrupted the defense’s correct argument that the photographic evidence showed no injuries to the arms and the legs and, in fact, did not show the arms and legs at all, to claim, in front of the jury, that the government had additional photos showing such injuries.”
Scoggins also alleged that the prosecution “plainly cheated throughout the trial and intentionally robbed Ms. Laniyo of her right to a fair trial.”
Scoggins said the evidence against the defendant was weak, at best.
“The only witness who testified to actual physical contact between Laniyo and the victim had no personal knowledge, or otherwise testifying to events that allegedly happened outside the first half of March [when the alleged child abuse incident happened]. Nobody else saw anything,” he reiterated.
There was no real evidence of abuse, Scoggins said, “beyond two scratches on the boy’s buttocks, contained in the photographs.”
Scoggins said the prosecution’s evidence “amounted to three points: 1) Trust us the injuries were much worse than they look in the photos; 2) If you use your imagination, you can see the bruising; and 3) we have other photos much worse, we just did not show them to you.”
Scoggins said, “A citizen of the Commonwealth sits in jail at this moment because the prosecutor in her trial, hell-bent on obtaining a conviction irrespective of anything else, willfully and intentionally trampled over the citizen’s constitutional right to a fair trial.”
He said his client, “at a bare minimum, deserves a new trial.”
On June 24, 2021, Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho remanded Laniyo, 37, to the custody of the Department of Corrections after a jury found her guilty of one count of child abuse.
According to the prosecution, Laniyo struck the boy with a tree branch, a broom, or her hand or by biting him, “resulting in injury clearly beyond the scope of reasonable corporal punishment and harming or threatening the child’s physical or mental health and well-being.”
Laniyo and Lynn Fitial, 45, were arrested following the death of a 3-year-old boy in March 2020. The boy was an adopted son of Fitial and was in the care of Laniyo.
Laniyo and Fitial were each charged with one count of child abuse. The court has granted their request to have separate trials.
As for Lynn Fitial, the prosecution said she failed to provide medical care for the boy resulting in his death. The court has not scheduled any trial yet for Fitial.
