FORMER Bureau of Motor Vehicles Director Juana Cabrera Leon Guerrero has filed a motion in federal court seeking compassionate release to care for her husband, who recently suffered a stroke.
In December 2023, the District Court for the NMI sentenced Leon Guerrero to five years’ imprisonment and ordered her to pay a $15,000 fine for her involvement in a scheme to produce fraudulent CNMI driver’s licenses. She will also serve a three-year probation term.
Representing herself, Leon Guerrero requested that the court reduce her 60-month sentence to 48 months. She has served 18 months and is currently incarcerated at the Federal Corrections Institute of Pekin in Illinois, with a projected release date of May 5, 2027.
In her motion, filed without requesting it be sealed, Leon Guerrero noted that she previously sought compassionate release from the warden of Pekin on June 14, 2025, but it was denied on July 18, 2025, exhausting her administrative remedies under Section 3582(c)(1)(A).
She stated that her husband suffered a stroke on June 15, resulting in right-side paralysis that affects his speech and mobility. “According to his doctor, Dr. John M. Tudela of CHCC, he will begin rehabilitation over the next six to 12 months. It is likely he will remain physically disabled and may not fully recover,” Leon Guerrero said.
Leon Guerrero added that their children live on the U.S. mainland, leaving no one capable of long-term care. Her 87-year-old mother has been assisting, but it is not a sustainable solution.
She argued that her circumstances meet the criteria for sentence reduction: she has extraordinary and compelling reasons for release, is a zero-point offender who does not pose a public safety risk, did not cause financial harm, and the factors now favor early release.
Leon Guerrero’s co-defendant, Yongde Li, was sentenced to 10 months in prison with credit for 12 days served, followed by three years’ supervised release.
According to the indictment, between Jan. 1, 2020 and Dec. 20, 2022, Leon Guerrero knowingly conspired with Li, fellow BMV employees, and other CNMI residents without lawful immigration status to produce fraudulent CNMI driver’s licenses on 60 occasions.
Li, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China, entered the CNMI on March 27, 2012, with his legal immigration status expiring on March 26, 2013.
