THE jury trial of Edward Gene Worswick Richards, who is accused of threatening to assault and kidnap District Court Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona, will begin on Feb. 25, 2025 at 10 a.m.
At a hearing before designated Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio on Jan. 3, Richards, through his court-appointed attorney Richard Miller, waived the reading of the indictment against him.
On Dec. 26, 2024, Judge Kim-Tenorio granted the request of Assistant U.S. Attorney Garth Backe to detain Richards pending trial.
Richards was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service after the hearing.
According to the indictment, Richards has been charged with one count of transmitting a threatening interstate communication.
“On or about November 10, 2024…RICHARDS did knowingly and willfully transmit in interstate commerce a threat to injure the person of another; to wit, the defendant sent an email to the United States Probation Office for the District of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands stating, ‘I just want to kill judge Ramona,’ in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 875(c),” the indictment stated.
Initially, Richards was charged “with Threatening to Assault or Murder a United States Judge, in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1)(B), and Transmitting a Threat to Kidnap Any Person or Threatening to Injure the Person of Another in Interstate or Foreign Commerce, in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. § 875(c).”
The arrest warrant against Richards was executed on Dec. 19, 2024.
In November 2020, Richards was arrested and charged with robbery in CNMI Superior Court.
According to the information filed in Criminal Case No. 20-0184E, Richards “unlawfully took property by use or threatened use of immediate force or violence,” and “used a dangerous weapon, namely, a machete and/or knife to obtain the property, to wit: U.S. currency and cigarettes.”
