FOR the jury trial of former Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, the Superior Court has issued a list of two jury panels, each consisting of 150 prospective jurors for a total of 300 prospective jurors. All are residents of Saipan.
Judge Pro Tem Alberto E. Tolentino has scheduled the jury trial for June 5, 2023.
Torres has been charged by the CNMI Office of the Attorney General with 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 also included theft charges related to the former governor’s travel expenses amounting to $20,000 between April 2018 and May 30, 2019, using public funds.
The case likewise alleged one count of contempt for failure to appear in compliance with a legislative subpoena.
Torres has denied the charges.
In September 2022, Judge Pro Tem Alberto Tolentino dismissed without prejudice the contempt charge against Torres. The judge found “impermissible exposure to privileged and confidential information that prevents [the prosecutor, Chief Solicitor J. Robert] Glass [Jr.] from prosecuting…Torres for Count XIV (Contempt).”
Without prejudice means the charge can be refiled.
The AG’s office has hired a private attorney from Texas, Robert Kingman, to assist in the case.
Torres, for his part, is represented by attorneys Victorino Torres, Matthew Holley, Viola Alepuyo and Anthony Aguon.
They earlier requested the court to select a jury panel from the entire CNMI voter registration list and not just from Saipan.
“In such small island communities,” they said, “it is easy for jurors to be swayed by extrajudicial information and personal considerations. This is especially so for Governor Torres. Governor Torres was elected by a majority of voters from across the CNMI in 2014 and 2018. As Governor of the CNMI, Governor Torres deals with all the islands. The policies he makes also apply to every island. Furthermore, some of the trips referenced in this case deal with trips to the other islands. Because Governor Torres’ work deals directly with all of the islands, it is difficult for the members of the small-knit communities not to have an opinion of the Governor. To exacerbate this issue, Governor Torres’ recent impeachment and resulting lawsuits, the criminal charges recently filed against him, and all of the resulting publicity, have made it nearly impossible for all the CNMI voters to come up with an unbiased opinion of him. This may make it difficult to find a sufficient number of unbiased jurors. And although a defendant does not have the right to be tried by a particular jury, that defendant is still entitled to a fair and impartial jury.”
Accordingly, his lawyers said, Torres “submits that the most practical method of ensuring a sufficiently large jury pool is to draw jurors from all the islands and not just Saipan. The need for judicial economy weighs in favor of having a larger jury pool.”
