Attorney Bruce Berline said his client is entitled to necessary expert services to defend himself.
“The government must provide a defendant with the ‘basic tools of an adequate defense’ if he cannot otherwise afford to pay them in order to comply with due process and its guarantee of fundamental fairness,” said Berline in his motion to compel government to send evidence to consultant.
Citing the case of United States v. Chase, Berline further argued, “The Supreme Court has ‘long recognized…that…justice cannot be equal where, simply as a result of his poverty, a defendant is denied the opportunity to participate meaningfully in a judicial proceeding in which his liberty is at stake.’”
Taitano and two others were charged in the U.S. District Court for the NMI with violating the Endangered Species Act.
A .410 shotgun was found at Taitano’s residence. The weapon is believed to be one of the firearms used to poach the bats.
Berline said Taitano’s tool and firearms identification consultant is based in Ontario, Canada.
Flying the consultant to the U.S. is costly and inconvenient, and the more practical option is to have the empty shells sent to the consultant, Berline said.
“All the travel and expense and difficulty will be avoided by an order from this court compelling the government to pack the requested empty shotgun shells in a Federal Express box, along with a prepaid Federal Express return voucher — all for well under one hundred dollars — and send it to the consultant,” said Berline.
“The consultant will conduct his independent testing of the evidence and return it to the laboratory within a week. The prepaid voucher allows the consultant to sign, package, seal and return the evidence to the government the same way it came to him,” he added.
