O’Malley recommended “a sentence of incarceration and fine at the lowest end of whatever U.S. Sentencing Guidelines range is determined by the court.” He did not elaborate.
According to the prosecutor: “Graft at any level of government inevitably degrades trust in the system itself. If members of the public do not trust the system, they will be less likely to abide its strictures, thus perpetuating a destructive cycle. The community in which [Salas] committed his crime now suffers from such a cycle. Only strict accountability can interrupt this cycle.”
The prosecution and defense noted that Salas provided information and helped the federal government in its investigation “regarding other prospective matters.”
Attorney David Banes, Salas’ court-appointed counsel, recommended a sentence of 10 months home confinement.
Alternatively, Banes added, if the federal court wishes to follow the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, “which are not mandatory, the defendant asks the court to impose a jail sentence of five months imprisonment and five months of home confinement.”
Banes is asking the U.S. District Court for the NMI “to create an individual sentence based on [Salas’] background, minimal criminal history, the unlikelihood he will be a recidivist, and his overall character.”
Salas “led a crime-free life for almost nine years [since December 2002] and that prior conviction was a misdemeanor,” Banes said, adding that his client has accepted responsibility for his crime.
Banes said the crime his client committed “wasn’t one of violence.”
Earlier, during Salas’ detention hearing, the U.S. Probation Office told the court that Salas was convicted of assault in 1987 when he was 19 years old, and was convicted of receiving stolen property in 2002. Both crimes occurred in California.
On Saipan, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested Salas on Sept. 14, 2010 after he received $200 from an owner of a printing press “in exchange for withholding administrative functions” such as imposing fines for building code violations.
Salas was released by the court on his own recognizance.
He will be sentenced on Aug. 30, 2011 by Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona.
