The AGO said on Wednesday that after reviewing the police report, Assistant Attorney General Michael P. Copeland found that there was not enough evidence in the report to conclude that the suspect was the person who had committed the crime.
The AGO said that on January 18, 2008, police report was forwarded to the AGO. The report indicated that on December 6, 2006, $7,851.66 went missing from the Palau Treasury Office, specifically from the Koror and Ngerulmud collections.The AGO said that at the time of the incident, there were no eye witnesses, no confessions, no scientific evidence and only limited circumstantial evidence that pointed to the guilt of the suspect.The AGO said that on February 18, 2008, based on the lack of evidence, AAG Copeland declined to file charges on the suspect named in the police report.The AAG said they sent a Memorandum to the Bureau of Public Safety stating that the AGO would not prosecute the case because “there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the suspect was the person who committed the alleged crime.”“That Memorandum was the last involvement that the Office of Attorney General had on the incident. It is the understanding of the Office of the Attorney General that this matter is still under active investigation. If sufficient additional evidence is gathered, the Office of the Attorney General will immediately move to prosecute the case,” the AGO said.
