FINDING that the joint motion of the prosecution and defense provides adequate grounds for a continuance under the Speedy Trial Act, Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI has granted the request of the parties to continue the trial of Lili Zhang Tydingco to July 6, 2022.
According to the order issued on Monday, “The parties seek to continue the pending jury trial scheduled for May 10, 2022 to July 6, 2022 so that defense counsel could have additional time to prepare for trial, specifically to file additional pretrial motions, and review trial transcripts from the prior two trials.”
The U.S. government seeks a continuance given the difficulty of scheduling two essential witnesses, the judge said.
Moreover, in light of the defendant’s motion in limine filed on April 8, 2022, the judge also finds “excludable delay since the filing of that motion until the court resolves that motion for May.”
Cornell Law School defines in limine as “a pretrial motion asking that certain evidence be found inadmissible, and that it not be referred to or offered at trial.”
In September 2019, following two and a half hours of deliberation, jurors found Tydingco guilty of one count of harboring a minor alien.
It was the second time she had been convicted of the same charge.
On June 17, 2020, Judge Manglona sentenced Tydingco to 90 days’ imprisonment for harboring a minor alien.
Following her sentencing, Tydingco appealed to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In June 2016, she and her husband, Francisco Muna Tydingco, were convicted of harboring a 10-year-old girl they brought from China in 2013.
The jury found Mrs. Tydingco guilty of harboring an alien and Mr. Tydingco guilty of aiding and abetting his wife.
On Dec. 9, 2016, Mrs. Tydingco was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment while Mr. Tydingco was sentenced to 21 months’ imprisonment.
The Tydingcos appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which remanded their conviction for a new trial. The Ninth Circuit judges said the jury could have convicted the defendants of an invalid theory.
On May 10, 2019, the U.S. government opted not to pursue the charge against Mr. Tydingco, and asked the federal court to dismiss the charge against him.
But the U.S. government refiled a superseding indictment against Mrs. Tydingco, charging her with harboring an illegal minor alien.
Recently, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals once again remanded and reversed the conviction of Lili Zhang-Tydingco for harboring a minor alien charge.
