DEPARTMENT of Public Safety-Boating Safety Lt. Emery L. Kaipat on Wednesday testified in the Refaluwasch or Carolinian language before the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations which is investigating Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’s public expenditures.
The hearing started with a heated argument between Kaipat’s legal counsel, Anthony Aguon, and the members of the committee.
Aguon reiterated his earlier written request to the committee on behalf of Kaipat, that each question be asked in Refaluwasch, and that Kaipat should be allowed to answer each of the questions in Refaluwasch.
The committee chair, Rep. Celina Babauta, said she would allow the questions to be asked in English, and if Kaipat needed a particular question to be asked in Refaluwasch, the committee would “accommodate it.”
The committee had asked a certified English-Refaluwasch translator, Jesus Elameto, to translate questions and answers in Refaluwasch.
Aguon, for his part, relied on his own Refaluwasch translator, Florence Kirby, who was seated next to him.
Aguon insisted that all questions to his client should be asked in Refaluwasch only.
He accused the committee of not giving his Refaluwasch client the same treatment it provided to Special Assistant for Administration Mathilde “Keko” Rosario who testified two months ago in Chamorro.
“Counsel, you are speaking out of order,” Babauta told Aguon.
“I am respectfully just trying to preserve my client’s constitutional rights,” Aguon said.
Rep. Edwin Propst, for his part, said: “What I do find insulting right now, to everybody in this room, is for you to try to insinuate that somehow there is some sort of racism here because you claimed that when it was for a Chamorro it was okay, but when it’s for a Carolinian it is not okay. It is insulting for you to insult the chairwoman, to insult our members, one of whom by the way, Rep. Denita Yangetmai, is Carolinian, and the translator, too.”
Propst then addressed Babauta: “I’m sorry Madam Chair, this is completely disrespectful and this has become a ploy that I find unacceptable.”
Aguon said he was “not insulting anyone on this committee.”
But Babauta said Aguon accused her of preventing Kaipat from exercising his constitutional right to be asked in Refaluwasch.
She said Kaipat could answer in Refaluwasch, but committee members could ask questions in English which would then be translated in Refaluwasch.
Babauta then recognized Yangetmai who proceeded to ask Kaipat a series of questions in Refaluwasch.
Afterward, Babauta asked Elameto to translate the questions and answers in English.
As translated by Elameto in English, Yangetmai’s first question was: Do you read, speak, and understand Carolinian, Chamorro and English?
Kaipat answered yes.
He also said, in Refaluwasch, that he has been with DPS for 28 years and that he graduated from the Police Academy in 1993.
He said he has been a boat captain with DPS-Boating Safety for 13 years.
Yangetmai then asked Kaipat if he had ever testified in court.
Kaipat said yes.
Did you use an interpreter when you testified in court? the lawmaker asked.
Kaipat answered no.
So who instructed you to speak Refaluwasch today? Yangetmai asked.
Kaipat replied, only myself.
Does your attorney speak Refaluwasch? Yangetmai asked Kaipat.
I don’t know, he replied.
So how would you communicate with your counsel today? Yangetmai asked.
In English, Kaipat answered.
Aguon objected and told the committee that he specifically told his client not to answer that question.
Aguon asked why did the translator provide Kaipat’s answer in English.
The translator answered, “Because he, Kaipat, did answer the question.”
Aguon said each question should be translated right after it was asked so Kaipat could answer each question.
But the lawyer said Yangetmai asked a series of questions and then Elameto translated the questions and Kaipat’s answers.
Aguon said the translation of the line of questioning was “very inaccurate.”
Elameto told Aguon, “You’re just trying to disrupt things. You are wasting my time here.”
At this point, Babauta called for a recess and excused Kaipat, but reminded that him he was still under subpoena.
Kaipat was asked to appear again before the House committee on Friday at 10:30 a.m.
Department of Public Safety-Boating Safety Lt. Emery L. Kaipat, right, talks to his legal counsel, Anthony Aguon, center, as Aguon’s Refaluwasch interpreter, Florence Kirby, left, looks on during the House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations hearing in the House chamber on Wednesday.
