Reynaldo A. Manila appears before the CNMI Board of Parole at the multi-purpose center on Jan. 6, 2021.
CHIEF Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI on Tuesday dismissed with prejudice the lawsuit filed by former inmate Reynaldo Manila against Corrections officials for deliberate indifference claims.
With prejudice means it cannot be refiled again.
Judge Manglona dismissed the complaint after the parties filed a stipulation of dismissal on Monday.
According to the stipulation, the parties had reached a settlement agreement with an effective date of Dec. 15, 2023.
The stipulation was signed by attorney Aaron Halegua, who represented Manila, Assistant Attorney General Charles P. Reyes Jr., who represented former Corrections Commissioner Robert Guerrero, and AAG Hunter Hunt, who represented Corrections official Jose K. Pangelinan.
“The Court shall retain jurisdiction over this matter to enforce the terms of the settlement agreement reached by the parties. Each party shall bear their own costs and fees. All motions before the Court are hereby terminated, and the Clerk is directed to close the case,” Judge Manglona said in her order.
Manila was sentenced to 60 years prison for the death of his six-month-old goddaughter in 2000. A doctor had testified that the baby was shaken “very hard,” consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
After he was paroled in January 2021, Manila, a Filipino national, returned to the Philippines.
In 2018, Manila sued Corrections officials accusing them of purposely delaying his medical treatment “although they knew that further delay would lead to total irreversible blindness.”
He further alleged that the defendants knew he needed medical treatment — retinal surgery — “and yet they worked on a hearing for a commutation of his sentence so he could be deported…to the Philippines and [Corrections] would not have to provide him medical care.”