SUPERIOR Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja has denied the request of a defense attorney to dismiss the refiled allegations against Rudolph Rudolph, 55.
Rudolph, who was arrested in July 2020, was charged with three counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree and four counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree.
Rudolph Rudolph
DPS photo
On Nov. 20, 2020, Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho dismissed counts I-VI of the indictment without prejudice for lack of probable cause.
On Dec. 2, 2020, the Attorney General’s Office refiled counts I-VI in the first amended information.
Rudolph’s court-appointed attorney Anthony Aguon has asked the court to dismiss the first amended information.
Aguon said refiling the charges is an abuse of the defendant’s due process rights.
But according to Assistant Attorney General Samantha Vickery, who represented the government, “It is well settled in most jurisdictions, including the CNMI and [the] Ninth Circuit, that criminal charges dismissed at a preliminary hearing may be refiled without any new or previously unavailable evidence.”
