ATTORNEY Brien Sers Nicholas has filed a separate motion seeking the recusal of Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho from presiding over the case of a 17-year-old man accused of sexual assault.
“To be clear,” Nicholas said, he “is seeking the recusal of Judge Camacho based on the ex-parte communications that subsequently took place between the judge and Attorney General Edward Manibusan.”
“And, to be very, very clear,” Nicholas added, “unlike the Commonwealth’s request in seeking Judge Camacho’s recusal in this case, which is based on scandalous arguments that are themselves equally frivolous, the defendant’s request is straightforward and is based on facts that are themselves proven by the Commonwealth before the court and in this case vis-à-vis the ex-parte communications between Judge Camacho and AG Manibusan.”
Nicholas represents the defendant, Kenneth Thomas Blas Kaipat.
According to Nicholas, “The appearance of Judge Camacho giving the Attorney General great deference in this case, all to the exclusion of the Defendant, puts [Judge] Camacho’s impartiality into question to the detriment of the defendant.”
An online legal dictionary defines ex-parte as a Latin term meaning “by or for one party.” The term may refer to an attorney’s communication with a judge without notice to, and outside the presence of, the other parties.
Last month, Judge Camacho found probable cause to charge Kaipat with three counts of sexual assault in the first degree, two counts of sexual assault in the second degree, aggravated assault and battery, assault with a dangerous weapon, strangulation, and burglary.
The AG’s office, through Chief Solicitor J. Robert Glass Jr., has twice asked the judge to recuse himself from the case.
Judge Camacho, for his part, vacated a hearing he set for June 9, 2021 pending another judge’s review of the Office of the AG’s renewed request that he, Judge Camacho, recuse himself from the case.
Presiding Judge Roberto C. Naraja has assigned the case to Judge Kenneth L. Govendo “for the purposes of determining the motion to disqualify pursuant to NMI Code of Judicial Conduct Canon 3(D)(c).”
Judge Govendo has not issued a hearing schedule.
Joseph N. Camacho
