After dismissing the jurors yesterday afternoon, visiting federal Judge Mark W. Bennett of the Northern District of Iowa ruled on the defense’s oral motion, denying a judgment of acquittal of Wei Lin.
The defendant’s attorneys — Mike Evangelista and Joseph James Norita Camacho — were also precluded from arguing that the case should be tried in the local trial court.
The defense’s said the charge of document fraud should have been tried in Superior Court.
Bennett said the prosecution, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Schuler, should prove the elements of the crime as leveled against Lin.
Last May, Wei Lin was indicted on two counts of document fraud and one count of false statements to a federal agent, in connection with his possession of a CNMI driver’s license fraudulently procured.
Wei Lin has been in detention at the CNMI Department of Corrections facility since his arrest last April.
