HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The Judiciary of Guam will hold two magistrate hearings a day following a request from Attorney General Douglas Moylan sent last week.
On Jan. 30, Moylan sent a letter to the Judiciary’s Administrator of the Courts Danielle Rosete, explaining a “dire situation” occurring when prosecutors are tasked with filing charges for arrestees and having them appear before a judge within 48 hours of their arrest.
Considering detainees had been released because of delayed filings, Moylan asked Rosete if the Judiciary could begin having magistrate hearings, or first appearance hearings, in the mornings and afternoons as opposed to just the afternoon.
Rosete responded to Moylan Friday, explaining while the request “departs from the court’s longstanding practice, the Judiciary recognizes the importance of ensuring the timely filing of criminal charges.”
“No judicial officer desires to risk the release of a potentially dangerous detainee because of a delayed filing by the Office of the Attorney General. For this reason, the Judiciary has been flexible with filing deadlines since your office first raised the issue of timely filing with the court,” Rosete wrote.
Rosete then confirmed that “as an interim measure,” magistrate judges Jonathan Quan and Benjamin Sison Jr. have been instructed to conduct morning magistrate hearings “upon the attorney general’s advanced written request to the Superior Court clerk of court.”
“Please note that these morning hearings will only be held by submitting the magistrate’s complaint to the Superior Court clerk’s office by 4 p.m. the day before,” Rosete explained.
Further efforts to find a solution are underway. Presiding Judge Alberto Lamorena III will hold a Zoom hearing Friday, Feb. 9 at noon. Agency heads from the AG’s office, the Public Defender Service Corp., the Alternate Public Defender division, the Guam Police Department and the Department of Corrections were asked to attend.
In response to Rosete’s letter, Moylan expressed appreciation for the accommodations.
“It will help in not just the administration of justice but (to) protect our crime victims,” Moylan stated in an email to Rosete.
Bill
A long-term solution suggested by Moylan to address the magistrate issue was to extend the deadline from 48 hours to 72 hours.
In his initial letter to Rosete, Moylan attached a draft of a bill which, if passed, would reflect the extension. The bill was introduced as Bill 235-37 by Sen. William Parkinson.
When asked about Bill 235, the Judiciary’s spokesperson Sarah Elmore-Hernandez told The Guam Daily Post, “the Judiciary was evaluating and will provide comment via testimony if and when the measure proceeds to public hearing.”
Although the Judiciary had not issued a position regarding the measure to extend deadlines, archives from the Guam Legislature show in 2008, when the magistrate deadline was 24 hours and a bill was introduced to extend it to 48 hours, the Judiciary testified it had “no issue” with the extension but explained it may raise “potential constitutional violations.”
Additionally, the Judiciary referred to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, County of Riverside v. McLaughlin, which interpreted “the Fourth Amendment requirement of demonstrating probable cause for warrantless arrests is to be limited to 48 hours” and not any later.
Guam is one of 10 jurisdictions in the country that uses a 48-hour deadline for first appearances, while a majority have first appearances “without unnecessary delay.” Georgia is the only jurisdiction to have a 72-hour timeline. Other states, such as Oregon, use a 36-hour deadline that can be extended to 96 hours for good cause at the request of the defendant, according to an article from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The Guam Judicial Center in Hagåtña on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024.
