HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The same day the government rested its case in the first-ever Pandemic Unemployment Assistance fraud trial in the Superior Court of Guam, defense attorney William Bischoff filed a memorandum in support of a motion for acquittal.
Defendant George Chambers Jr. appeared before Judge Vernon Perez for day three of the trial on Monday.
The government called multiple witnesses, including staff from the Guam Department of Labor, over the past couple days of trial before resting its case.
“Insufficient evident was presented to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Chambers is not entitled to PUA; therefore a motion for a judgment of acquittal should be granted,” Bischoff stated in Monday’s filing.
“DOL had already twice allowed his application, for his being a single-parent caretaker of a 12-year-old daughter who was forced to stay home instead of going to school during the pandemic, who was thus unable to go out and find work (if it was even available). DOL acknowledges this. Not a single DOL employee denied that Mr. Chambers was already PUA-eligible on that basis.”
Chambers, 50, is facing two counts of forgery as a third-degree felony, tampering with public records as a third-degree felony, two counts of unsworn falsification of record as a misdemeanor and one charge of unsworn falsification of record as a misdemeanor.
“The question of whether he was entitled under the CARES Act are not part of the charges. It’s based on his application to Department of Labor…. He was disqualified because they found a document that he submitted was a forgery,” said prosecuting attorney Dannis Le during arguments made before the court on Monday afternoon.
“If he is entitled to it then it doesn’t matter,” Bischoff said.
“Any fraud is a primary disqualification,” Le said.
“They are making a misrepresentation. It’s not fraud if it is something they are entitled to,” Bischoff said. “The indictment has overlooked a major significance in this case. He is already entitled to it…. We will show Mr. Chambers was working on a construction project at the time the pandemic struck. He was put out of work by the pandemic.”
The defense had a couple witnesses testify about the short-term construction project Chambers was assisting with before his work was affected by the pandemic.
As of press time Monday, there was no word on whether he would take the witness stand.
Parties will discuss the defense request for acquittal.
George Chambers Jr. sits inside the courtroom on Thursday, June 10, during day one of his criminal trial.
