CHIEF Solicitor J. Robert Glass Jr. has objected to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’s attorneys’ request for the investigation report of a former Attorney General’s Office investigator regarding the travels of government officials.
“Defendant wishes to conduct a fishing expedition or act as ‘Big Brother’ in the Commonwealth’s discovery,” Glass said in his objection to defendant’s updated motion to compel.
“The Commonwealth has already argued that it does not believe the report exists because it has been unable to locate the report or any mention of the report in any physical or electronic files or within the Attorney General Investigative Division’s case database,” Glass said. “The Commonwealth also argued that even if the report did exist it would be protected from discovery by Rule 16,” he added.
On April 8, 2022, the AG’s office filed a criminal case against the 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 complaint included theft charges related to the governor’s travel expenses amounting to $20,000 between April 2018 and May 30, 2019, using public funds.
The case also alleged one count of contempt for failure to appear in compliance with a legislative subpoena.
Torres has denied all charges.
In his recent motion, Glass noted that on June 6, 2022, Torres, through his legal defense team, filed a motion to compel discovery and the production of Brady materials.
The defense team listed 45 categories of items they wished the Commonwealth to produce.
On June 20, 2022, the AG’s office filed its opposition to the motion to compel arguing that it did not have anything to produce on most of the 45 listed requests, and that anything regarding a 2019 investigation by [former chief investigator] Lawrence Pangelinan either does not exist or if it does exist would be protected by Rule 16(a)(2) as an internal government document related to the investigation and prosecution of the case.
On June 29, 2022, Torres’s attorneys filed a reply and requested the court to issue an order for the parties to meet and confer in an effort to reduce the scope of the discovery materials that the defense was seeking.
On June 30, 2022, Superior Court Pro Tem Judge Alberto Tolentino held a hearing on the motion to compel and granted the request of the parties to meet and confer on the discovery issues.
Judge Tolentino on July 5, 2022, ordered the parties to meet and confer and provide a stipulation, if any, reached by the parties.
On July 26, 2022, Glass said the parties met and focused the discussion on the discovery of three issues: 1) former Attorney General Investigative Division Chief Lawrence Pangelinan’s alleged report; 2) unredacted 2019 Office of the Public Auditor document(s); and 3) the travel authorizations and accompanying documents that defendant intends to use at trial.
Glass said the Commonwealth produced BATES 001623-001683 on a compact disc, which included some responsive documents and video of the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee hearing from August 12, 2021.
“Following the meet and confer, the parties worked on a joint update to the court,” he said. “After numerous back and forth drafts, the update was signed by both parties and filed with the court on August 1, 2022, at 6 p.m. Despite the court’s order only mentioning any stipulations, and despite the parties having narrowed and reached some common ground, approximately four hours later, defendant filed his own update. Defendant’s update not only contains information the Commonwealth rejected and disputed during the meet and confer and the parties update, defendant’s update is both factually and legally inaccurate,” Glass added.
“The Commonwealth objects to defendant’s update as it is outside the order of the court for a stipulation from the parties, that the alleged Brady material is already within the knowledge of defendant who can use the information for trial should they so choose, and that it is sufficient for either Mr. Pangelinan or the defendant to inform the Commonwealth of where Mr. Pangelinan’s alleged report is located for the Commonwealth to search,” Glass said.
“The Commonwealth objects to the material misrepresentations defendant made to the court that the Commonwealth possesses, controls, or even has knowledge of the contents of the OPA document(s), and that the Commonwealth redacted any information in the document(s),” he added.
The governor, through his attorneys Viola Alepuyo, Victorino Torres, Matthew Holley and Anthony Aguon, has asked the court to dismiss the casing, saying that the prosecution was “selective and vindictive.”
“This prosecution is selective because the Office of the Attorney General has chosen not to prosecute similarly situated individuals,” the defense said.
As of Aug. 9, Judge Tolentino had not made any ruling on the motions filed by the parties.
