THE Attorney General’s Office has filed criminal charges against Rep. Norman S. Palacios, D-Tinian, for alleged sexual abuse of a woman in a bar on Tinian last November.
Palacios, 39, was charged with assault and battery, and disturbing the peace. He was summoned to appear and answer for the charges at the Superior Court on Tinian on April 12.
Assistant Attorney General Aaron J. Romano stated in the information filed on Monday that on Nov. 19 Palacios did an unlawful sexual contact with the victim.
Romano added that the defendant “did unlawfully and willfully commit an act which unreasonably annoyed or disturbed (the victim) thereby depriving her of her right to peace and quiet when he touched her without her consent.”
It was reported last year that the victim complained that while in a bar, the Tinian congressman allegedly sexually abused her.
But Palacios, through counsel Robert O’Connor, had immediately denied the allegations.
O’Connor had stated that they believe the filing of the complaint was pushed by the woman’s jealous boyfriend, who is a Tinian police officer. He said that the complaint was also a result of politics on the island.
The woman is a bar hostess whose boyfriend got jealous when she sat down with the congressman in the bar, the lawyer told the Variety in an earlier interview.
