HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — A judge is considering whether the judge assigned to the Department of Public Health and Social Services corruption case should be disqualified.
On Tuesday morning in the Superior Court of Guam, Judge John Terlaje heard oral arguments on an objection to Presiding Judge Alberto Lamorena III hearing the case for DPHSS Director Arthur San Agustin and chief environmental health officer Masatoma “Tom” Nadeau. Both face corruption charges related to approving sanitary permits for 15 Guam Department of Education schools without performing legally required inspections.
The request to disqualify Lamorena is based on the fact the Lamorena had recused himself in another corruption case involving the Guam Regional Transit Authority. Lamorena in that case voluntarily recused himself once the Office of the Attorney General subpoenaed records from the Office of the Governor. Lamorena stated he had a personal relationship with Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero’s family.
The objection in the DPHSS case was brought before Terlaje for review because Lamorena explained in his response to the objection that Adelup was not involved in the case and “the facts and issues” were “sufficiently different.”
Both San Agustin and Nadeau’s attorneys, Joaquin “Jay” Arriola Jr. and Patrick Civille, respectively, disagreed with Lamorena’s response and outlined their arguments in writing. The two attorneys further argued orally before Terlaje on Tuesday morning.
Subpoenas
Since Arriola filed the objection to Lamorena staying on the case, he reiterated that the DPHSS case will involve an even closer analysis of the communications among San Agustin, Nadeau and Adelup than the GRTA case because Public Health is a line agency and reports directly to the governor.
Arriola added, although there are no subpoenas pending in the DPHSS case as there are in the GRTA case, subpoenas will be filed at some point.
“Clearly we are going to subpoena the governor’s office records because in this case, the governor is the direct hiring and appointing authority for Mr. San Agustin. Likewise for Mr. Nadeau as well,” Arriola stated. Nadeau later in the hearing also indicated there was a “very high degree of certainty” subpoenas will be issued to Adelup.
Arriola further referred to Lamorena’s response to the objection, where the presiding judge stated the approving of sanitary permits involves only DPHSS and GDOE.
“That is incorrect,” Arriola stated.
“Do we think for a minute that every school, every institution, every restaurant that has been inspected by the 20 inspectors at the (DPHSS)? Is anybody fooling themselves? And who has direct input over whether the sanitary permits are issued with inspections or not inspections? Who has control over the inspectors? The governor. Who has control when COVID’s an issue? The governor,” Arriola added.
Civille followed Arriola’s arguments by saying “chronic problems” faced by Public Health involve Adelup.
“This involves chronic problems of the Legislature burdening Public Health with far too many mandates, not providing any statutory priority of how those mandates are to be carried out (and) chronic underfunding. The need for Public Health constantly to triage what funds we have, and this goes back years, long before the Leon Guerrero administration, and those problems involve the Office of the Governor,” said Civille, who said Lamorena “greatly oversimplified” the issue.
After hearing the arguments from the two defense attorneys, Terlaje asked, if San Agustin and Nadeau had filed subpoenas, would Lamorena’s recusal be an issue?
Arriola again made clear defense counsels are intending to file a subpoena. However, he said, he is required to file a motion to disqualify as soon as there is a basis.
“We shouldn’t have to if we’re telling you,” Arriola explained before Civille discussed a problem with waiting to subpoena at a later date.
“Each of us have about half a dozen motions, and we’ve been working on the case, but if we waited until we have rulings on those, and maybe they’re adverse to us, and then we said, ‘Oh well, here’s your subpoena from the governor, you need to recuse yourself,’ I think that would be more fraught with peril,” Civille stated.
Both Arriola and Civille, however, confirmed subpoenas will be filed.
Response
Arriola stated in his arguments that the Office of the Attorney General response to the renewed objection consisted of requesting there be a stay on the case pending the result of the Supreme Court of Guam decision on the first objection to Lamorena being assigned to the case.
The first objection, which consisted of asking for Lamorena’s disqualification due to his name being on Attorney General Douglas Moylan’s resume posted on social media during his campaign last year, resulted in the high court determining Lamorena will stay on the case if he amended his answer to the initial objection and took steps to have the post removed.
Arriola argued the response to the second objection did not address the new arguments, which Terlaje agreed with before giving Assistant Attorney General Lewis Harley time to respond at the Tuesday hearing.
“The People’s perspective (is) we just want an impartial judge,” said Harley, who also said San Agustin and Nadeau are entitled to raise issues regarding Lamorena’s disqualification.
Arthur San Agustin
Alberto Lamorena III
Masatomo “Tom” Nadeau
