HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Former attorney John Bordallo Bell was sentenced to serve five years in prison for holding three employees hostage at his law office in 2021.
Bell, who was found guilty at trial earlier this year of charges of terrorizing as a third-degree felony, three counts of unlawful restraint as misdemeanors and two counts of assault as misdemeanors, was sentenced Monday afternoon in the Superior Court of Guam.
Bell’s charges stem from an incident on July 31, 2021, when he was accused of holding several of his employees hostage. During the incident, Bell told his employees to sit down and be quiet before threatening to cut off their hands and bash their heads if they tried to use their cellphones.
Charging documents state one of the victims who tried to use her phone had her neck grabbed and head slammed against a desk by Bell.
Defense
Before Bell was sentenced, his attorney, William Gavras, argued Bell should be sentenced to time served, as Bell is currently being held at the Department of Corrections and has been since before his trial in June of this year.
Gavras’ request for Bell to be released was supported by Bell’s colleagues in the legal community, writing letters and testifying at the hearing.
Zachary Taimanglo and Kathleen Aguon, both from the Public Defender Service Corp., in particular testified to his character as Taimanglo and Bell were in law school together and Aguon is a first cousin of Bell.
Additionally, Aguon testified about Bell’s upbringing with his mother, who had an undiagnosed mental illness that affected Bell’s childhood.
Gavras then used that testimony and related it to a statement given by one of Bell’s employees to officers with the Guam Police Department, in which the employee reported Bell would cry for help, but would not receive help.
“That is not a 10-year lawyer that day interacting with those women. That is a little boy crying for help,” Gavras said, arguing Bell was “redeemable” and was trying “to get his act together.”
‘Twisted’
Bell also read a letter to Superior Court Judge Maria Teresa B. Cenzon in which he asked for forgiveness from the women for his actions. Prosecutor Gloria Rudolph, however, requested Bell be sentenced to the maximum of eight years.
Rudolph first read impact statements from all of Bell’s former employees, who expressed they have struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and can’t work for a law firm anymore because it triggers memories of the incident. The women said that they can’t even drive in the area of Bell’s office.
Rudolph said Bell “wants it both ways,” but has squandered every chance he has been given.
“Every advantage this defendant has had, … he has squandered. He was admitted as an attorney, he squandered that. He had a law practice, he squandered that. He had pretrial release, what did he do with that? He took that as a chance to harass and frighten the victims in this case and also to defame them as well,” Rudolph said, saying the request for leniency was “twisted.”
Although Cenzon decided Bell would serve five years, rather than the maximum of eight years requested by Rudolph, she called using the victim’s statements to the police “distasteful.”
Cenzon weighed the fact that Bell had committed several pretrial violations, but recognized as well that Bell did not have a criminal record, was a member in good standing in the community and was seeking psychological help when she considered the five-year sentence.
