SPECIAL Prosecutor James Robert Kingman has withdrawn the 38 additional charges he wanted to file against former Gov. Ralph DLG Torres.
These include the initially charged Count XIV: Contempt, and Counts XV-LI, alleging Misconduct in Public Office, and Perjury pertaining to first-class travel, among others.
Citing the recent ruling of Judge Pro Tem Arthur Barcinas granting the defense motion to quash the subpoena to Bank of Guam, Kingman said, “This ruling made it clear what the court’s interpretation of pro hac vice means as applied to this case. If the counts of misconduct related to travel…is the entire scope of the pro hac vice admission, the court is unlikely to find that including the contempt charge or the 37 other counts will fall therein.”
He said the court’s ruling held that the lack of separate probable cause determination was the most important protection.
“The CNMI lacks the standard mechanism, the grand jury, which in most jurisdictions is the independent probable cause assessor for both investigatory subpoenas and felony indictments,” Kingman said.
“Since felony charges can be brought based on the probable cause assessment of the prosecuting authority through the information system, the Special Prosecutor made the application under the same theory. Now that theory has been rejected by the court in its ruling to quash the subpoena, the same apparent deficiencies that the court found there would likely apply to the amended information,” Kingman added.
He withdrew his request to amend the information and said he will proceed to prosecute counts I-XIII.
In his request to amend the information, Kingman accused Torres of additional first-class travel, use of public funds for political or campaign activity, perjuring himself in a declaration for government expenditure, illegal reimbursement, theft by deception, theft of utility services, purposeful release of a captive deer, authorizing special permit for out of season collection of coconut crab, and misuse of government transport.
In quashing the subpoena to Bank of Guam for Torres’ bank records, Judge Barcinas said the special prosecutor’s pro hac vice license does not extend beyond this case.
He said “the special prosecutor’s pro hac vice admission was granted for the purpose of prosecuting this case, it was not for the purpose of investigating Torres beyond the scope of this case.”
“For Kingman to investigate any possible financial misconduct on the part of defendant goes beyond what has been charged in this particular case,” the judge added, “Therefore, as the subpoena goes beyond what is charged in this case as identified above, when Kingman requested the subpoena to be issued, he went beyond the boundaries of his pro hac vice admission. As such, the subpoena should also be quashed on these grounds.”
Torres is represented by attorneys Viola Alepuyo, Anthony Aguon, Victorino Torres, and Matthew Holley.
On April 8, 2022, the CNMI Office of the Attorney General filed a criminal case against the former governor alleging 12 counts of misconduct in public office and one count of theft relating to the issuance of airline tickets for business class, first class, or other premium class travel for himself and/or Diann T. Torres, his wife.
The complaint alleged that Torres committed “misconduct in public office” on nine occasions from April to December 2018 in connection with his purchases of business class, first class and other premium travel tickets for himself and his wife, Diann T. Torres.
The case also alleged one count of contempt for failure to appear in compliance with a legislative subpoena.
The former governor has denied the charges.
James Robert Kingman
