Shayne Villanueva flashes the “peace” sign as he exits the courtroom following a hearing at the Guma’ Hustisia on Nov. 19. 2024. Also in photo is his lawyer, Keith Chambers II, left.
SUPERIOR Court Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo has rescheduled the bench trial of Shayne Villanueva for Jan. 27, 2025 at 9 a.m.
Villanueva has been charged with contempt of Legislature. His bench trial, which was originally set for Nov. 6, 2024, was rescheduled for Dec. 3, 2024. But because the parties informed Judge Kenneth Govendo of other pending motions, he rescheduled the trial for Jan. 27, 2025.
At a status conference hearing on Monday, Judge Govendo said he wanted the trial to begin without any other pending motions.
The case was reassigned to him after Presiding Judge Roberto C. Naraja recused himself from the case. The judge is the uncle of the chair of the House special committee that found Villanueva in contempt of the Legislature. Villanueva has pled not guilty to the charge.
At the hearing on Monday, Villanueva was present with his defense attorneys, Keith Chambers and Joaquin Torres, while Assistant Attorney General James Kingman appeared for the government.
The court heard arguments from Kingman and Chambers regarding the defense motion to subpoena Kingman as a witness and a cross-motion to recuse him from the case.
The opposing parties argued before Judge Govendo their positions on Kingman’s notice of conflict of interest in attorney Torres representing Villanueva in the case.
The judge placed the motions under advisement and stated that he would issue a written order by the end of the week.
Chambers wants Kingman to testify at trial. In his motion, Chambers said his client “seeks to introduce evidence to establish the following facts: 1) Mr. Kingman told Mr. Villanueva, through Mr. Villanueva’s counsel, that he was under investigation by the [Office of the] AG, that the Commonwealth already had probable cause against Mr. Villanueva, and that the Commonwealth was weighing whether to criminally charge Mr. Villanueva, prior to the March 5, 2024 legislative hearing; 2) that written statements by Mr. Kingman confirm what was orally said during … a phone call, and 3) written statements by Mr. Kingman show that Mr. Villanueva had reason to believe that the answers to the two questions being charged here could be used to incriminate Mr. Villanueva.”
Kingman opposed the motion. In his opposition, he stated: “A key legal problem with this proposed strategy comes in the second clause: ‘Through Mr. Villanueva’s counsel.’ If the strategy is to somehow put forward the mental condition of the defendant at the alleged time, that can be done either through inference by action or through the testimony of the only person that knows. If it is through inference based on a conversation, it would need to be the principles of that conversation. Kingman has communicated with the lawyer for the defendant. That is not communicating with Villanueva.”
Kingman added, “Defendant also claims to want Kingman to be disqualified because defendant intends to introduce exhibits that were written statements by Kingman. These exhibits are privileged attorney-attorney communication inappropriate for publication in court. This argument has been articulated before by the Commonwealth, but it is worth considering hypothetical.”
Villanueva was charged with contempt of Legislature after he invoked his Fifth Amendment right when asked questions about BOOST by a House special committee chaired by Rep. Ralph N. Yumul.
BOOST stands for “Building Optimism, Opportunities and Stability Together,” a $17 million federally funded program.
Villanueva is the owner of Roil Soil Marketing, which the administration of then-Gov. Ralph DLG Torres contracted to help implement BOOST in 2022.
