The 53-year-old defendant was charged with issuing $57,000 in checks to himself which he deposited to various accounts at the Bank of Guam and the First Hawaiian Bank on Saipan without authorization in 2006.
The defendant entered into a plea agreement with the commonwealth on Nov. 17, 2008 with his counsel Joey P. San Nicolas. The government was represented by Assistant Attorney General Joseph J. Przyuski.
Fitzgerald was also charged with one count of misconduct in public office for committing the illegal acts of theft under the color of office, which is a violation of CNMI laws.
He entered a guilty plea to five counts of theft. The court granted the motion of the government to dismiss all the other counts in the information.
Associate Judge David A. Wiseman set the sentencing for Feb. 4, 2009.
The court ordered the Office of Adult Probation to submit a pre-sentence investigation by Jan. 16, 2009.
In his affidavit, Rolando Decena, investigator of the CNMI Public Auditor’s Office stated that the defendant, who was voted vice chairman of CTC on June 11, 2001 became its chairman on June 1, 2006.
Decena said on Oct. 24, 2006, CTC was abolished with the signing of the Public Utilities Commission Law.
He said on Jan. 10, 2007, the Office of the Public Auditor received information that the defendant wrote about $60,000 in CTC checks to himself dated between July and Aug. 2006, and that the checks were found through an audit conducted by Deloitte & Touche.
The documents revealed that during his term as chairman, the defendant wrote 20 checks to himself amounting to $57, 904.90 without authorization from CTC commissioners. The checks were deposited to various accounts at the Bank of Guam and the First Hawaiian Bank on Saipan.
On May 2, 2007, then-CTC Commissioner Josephine Mesta stated that in Sept. 2006, she received documents from then-CTC Commissioner Norman Tenorio revealing that the defendant wrote about $50,000 to $60,000 in checks to himself, and that he had been paying Islander Rent a Car for a leased vehicle.
She said she and Tenorio did not approve the checks.
She said the defendant did not submit a justification for the checks and the vehicle lease.
Copies of e-mails between Mesta and the defendant were produced, showing Fitzgeral admitted that what he did was wrong and that “he screwed up.”
He said his judgment was affected by the medications and pain killers he was taking.
The defendant was also quoted as saying in his e-mail that what he did was the “easiest thing and the most wrong thing he ever did in his life.”
The defendant also stated that he was getting the money together to pay back CTC.
