By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
SUPERIOR Court Associate Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio on Monday granted 21-year-old Cleon Otto Reyes Pacho permission to attend U.S. Army Reserve training on Saipan sometime in July, approving a modification of his bail conditions while he awaits trial on a felony prison-contraband charge.
At the June 29 hearing, Pacho was represented by attorney Keith Chambers. Chief Prosecutor Chester Hinds, representing the Commonwealth, did not oppose the request as long as the training remains on Saipan and Pacho continues to comply with all existing bail conditions, including a no-contact order involving Department of Corrections officers who may be witnesses in the case. Kim-Tenorio said she will issue a written order outlining the modification.
Pacho, the 2025 Department of Corrections academy valedictorian, and co-defendant Regina Camacho Bowie, 37, are each charged with one count of promoting major or minor contraband under 6 CMC § 3205, an offense punishable by up to four years in prison, a $1,500 fine, or both.
The charges stem from a March 24 surveillance operation launched by the Department of Public Safety’s Criminal Investigation Bureau and Corrections Internal Affairs after officers received a tip that drugs and other contraband would be smuggled into the Susupe prison facility. Investigators observed a red Toyota Corolla pull into the northern employee parking lot, where Pacho walked toward the vehicle. Bowie stepped out of the passenger seat and handed him a plastic bag.
Inside the facility, Corrections officers searched the bag and found Ziploc bags containing a green leafy substance and a crystalline substance, along with barbecue sticks, soft drinks, smokeless tobacco and lighters. The crystalline substance later tested positive for methamphetamine.
Investigators stopped the Corolla shortly after the handoff. Bowie told officers that her boyfriend picked her up in Kagman and drove directly to Corrections and that she noticed a white plastic bag in the car containing barbecue sticks, soft drinks and coffee. She said her boyfriend told her a Corrections officer would meet her and instructed her to hand over the bag.
In a voluntary statement, Pacho said a woman had called asking to speak with an inmate and later requested that he pick up food for the inmate known as “Max.” He said he briefly stepped outside to retrieve the items and accepted the bag without speaking to Bowie before being stopped by Capt. Benjamin Lizama. Pacho told investigators he did not know what was inside the bag and intended to bring it to his commander.
Pacho pleaded not guilty in May and remains free on a $2,500 bond under the supervision of his father, who serves as his third-party custodian.
A status conference is scheduled for July 6.
Bryan Manabat was a liberal arts student of Northern Marianas College where he also studied criminal justice. He is the recipient of the NMI Humanities Award as an Outstanding Teacher (Non-Classroom) in 2013, and has worked for the CNMI Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program as lead facilitator.
