Shayne B. Villanueva, left, comes out of the courtroom on Tuesday with his attorney, Keith Chambers.
SHAYNE B. Villanueva entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of contempt of Legislature during an arraignment before Superior Court Presiding Judge Roberto C. Naraja on Tuesday.
Villanueva, represented by attorney Keith Chambers, also waived the reading of his rights and information.
In a motion, Chambers asked the court for a Franks hearing and a probable cause determination hearing. He also requested the court to quash the warrant against his client, and all the fruits of the warrant.
A Franks hearing is a legal proceeding in a criminal case in which the defense challenges the information in a search warrant that is used to support it.
Chambers also orally asked Judge Naraja to recuse himself from the case, noting the judge’s relationship with the chair of the House Special Committee on Federal Assistance & Disaster-Related Funding, Rep. Ralph Naraja Yumul, who is the judge’s nephew.
Judge Naraja denied the defense motions but directed Chambers to refile them. He also ordered Chambers to put into a motion the request for the judge’s recusal.
The judge scheduled a status conference for May 6 at 9:30 a.m. so the parties can further discuss the scheduling of motion hearings and the bench trial schedule.
Judge Naraja said he was inclined to schedule the bench trial for early October.
Villanueva is the owner of Roil Soil Marketing, which the administration of then-Gov. Ralph DLG Torres contracted to help implement the $17 million federally funded Building Optimism, Opportunities and Stability Together or BOOST program in 2022.
According to the House Special Committee on Federal Assistance & Disaster-Related Funding, the documents it gathered indicate that Villanueva was paid $215,000 “at the very least,” by the previous administration for implementing the program.
On March 5, 2024, Villanueva appeared before the committee and invoked his Fifth Amendment right when asked questions about BOOST.
The committee found him in contempt, and Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez transmitted to Attorney General Edward Manibusan a “certification of statement of contempt” pertaining to Villanueva.
On March 22, 2024, Villanueva self-surrendered at the Department of Corrections after an arrest warrant was issued against him for contempt. Villanueva posted $1,000 bail for his release.
Misleading statements
In his motion, Chambers said “AG investigator Ikluk T. Masayos intentionally or recklessly made false or misleading statements or omissions in support of the warrant.”
According to Chambers, “The Declaration contains material omissions in paragraphs 8, 9, and 10. Specifically, of their failure to mention that Mr. Villanueva did ‘answer’ and did ‘testify’ when asked the questions mentioned in those paragraphs. Mr. Villanueva answered and testified by pleading the Fifth. This omission made those paragraphs in the Declaration false and misleading because, without the inclusion of the fact that Mr. Villanueva pled the Fifth, the Declaration gives the impression that Mr. Villanueva sat silently following the questions put to him. Had Mr. Villanueva not given any answer at all as the Declaration implies, there would have been grounds for probable cause for contempt of the Legislature. 1 CMC § 1306(a)(2).”
Chambers said the “false and misleading statements and omissions were necessary to finding probable cause because when the Declaration is reconstructed with the accurate statements inserted, a reasonably prudent person cannot find that there was probable cause to arrest Mr. Villanueva.”
Chambers said, “The setting in which the questions were asked was thus: 1) Mr. Villanueva knew that the FBI raided the Bank of Saipan and is currently conducting an investigation regarding the BOOST program; 2) Mr. Villanueva was informed via his attorney that he is currently being criminally investigated by the Office of the Attorney General and that ‘probable cause’ exists; 3) Mr. Villanueva knew that AAG [James Robert] Kingman and Investigator Ikluk T. Masayos were physically present at Hearing Two; 4) because Hearing Two occurred during normal business hours, Mr. Villanueva had reason to believe that AAG Kingman and Investigator Ikluk T. Masayos were not present at Hearing Two as interested members of the public but rather were working, that is, using Hearing Two to obtain more information for their criminal investigation into Mr. Villanueva; and 5) the BOOST investigation was being done for ‘gathering evidence … and [to] pass it on to the Attorney General.’ In regards to the [latter], it is true that the statements made by Representative Edwin Propst on Facebook occurred after Hearing Two. However, they appear to confirm what Mr. Villanueva reasonably suspected going into Hearing Two, that is: 1) the Legislature has lost faith in the ongoing Federal investigation; 2) the Committee members lament the failure of the passage of House Bill 23-22 that would have given the Office of the Attorney General additional subpoena powers; 3) that the Committee decided to conduct the BOOST investigation as a fishing expedition for the Office of the Attorney General and to collect information for the Office of the Attorney General that the Office of the Attorney General otherwise could not collect due to their lack of subpoena power and other restrictions, such as Miranda.”
At the hearing on Tuesday, the government was represented by Assistant Attorney General James Robert Kingman, who opposed the defense motion.
He told the judge that the warrant issued was an arrest warrant, not a search warrant.
After the hearing, Kingman told reporters, “[At] the last minute, the defense tried to push the arraignment off and the judge was not inclined to do so, which I appreciate. There is a procedure for these things and everyone follows them appropriately.”
Asked whether the prosecution will offer a plea agreement to the defense, Kingman said, “It’s my policy to seek resolutions. … It’s actually required in the rules of professional ethics.”
He declined to give an update on the contempt case against two other former BOOST contractors, Rob Travilla and Salina Sapp, who also appeared before the House committee and invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked about the BOOST program.
On March 15, 2024, House Speaker Villagomez transmitted to the AG a certification of contempt pertaining to Travilla and Sapp.
