SUPERIOR Court Presiding Judge Roberto C. Naraja denied Rota Mayor Efraim Atalig’s motion for a court-appointed counsel.
Efraim Atalig
The mayor has been charged with misconduct in public office for taking government-funded per diem and salary compensation to attend a Republican campaign rally on Guam on June 23, 2018.
In federal court, the mayor and his girlfriend, Evelyn Atalig, were charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and making a false statement, but a jury found them not guilty in August 2020.
In his local case, Mayor Atalig is represented by attorney Cong Nie while Assistant Attorney General Robert Charles Lee represents the CNMI government.
A court-appointed counsel represented the mayor in his federal case, but in his ruling, Presiding Judge Naraja said Mayor Atalig has an annual salary of $60,000, which “falls above the presumption for indigent defense.”
The judge also noted that Atalig’s partner makes roughly $30,000 annually, which has been reduced to $24,000 through Executive Action Directive 2020-02.
But the mayor is also heir to a mountainside 110,000-square-meter mountainside property on Rota, and has $1,428 in disposable income a month, after taking monthly necessity expenses and child support into consideration, the judge said.
He concluded that Mayor Atalig is able to obtain and maintain legal representation for the costs associated with his trial without causing substantial hardship to his family and depriving him and his dependents of food, shelter, or clothing.
If costs for legal representation causes substantial hardship to Mayor Atalig and his dependents, he can file another motion for court-appointed counsel, the judge said.
Seven of the mayor’s former and current resident directors were charged by the Attorney General’s Office with misconduct in public office, but they have already disposed the cases against them through a plea agreement or by participating in an adult diversion program.
The mayor, who was reelected in 2018 two months after he was indicted, is the remaining defendant in the local case.
