On Tuesday morning in the District Court of Guam, Charissa Tenorio, Tina Sanchez, Frankie Rosalin, Marlene Pinaula, Matthew Topasna, and Kathleen Peredo appeared for a pretrial hearing with the purpose of attorneys discussing the evidence turned over from the United States Attorney’s Office.
The evidence stems from an investigation into the seven defendants, including Winnie Jo Santos, whose appearance at the hearing was waived, and the FBI alleging that the defendants were involved in a conspiracy to defraud the PUA program between July 2020 and September 2021.
In the hearing, Assistant United States Attorney Benjamin Petersburg confirmed to District Court of Guam Magistrate Judge Michael Bordallo that 934,000 pages of documents and gigabytes of data had been turned over to defense counsel since the individuals were indicted in July and pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, nine counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, 18 counts of mail fraud, money laundering, and two counts of witness tampering.
In response, Tenorio’s counsel, Jacqueline Terlaje, said she was in receipt of the evidence, but because nearly a million pages needed to be reviewed and with the trial scheduled to start in about three months, more time was needed to review all the pages. Terlaje added that only after all the pages are reviewed would she be able to file motions or request expert witnesses.
Peredo’s counsel, William Gavras, subsequently asked for more time because the digital files he received containing the evidence were corrupted.
Bordallo, following the indications that more time was needed, confirmed with the remaining defense attorneys that they will also be requesting more time and decided to vacate the December trial date.
Bordallo said there was a “just cause” for the delay because the “volume…and technological difficulties” of the discovery meant attorneys needed more time to prepare for trial.
Another hearing was scheduled on Oct. 31 with the purpose of attorneys discussing a new trial date.
