The Fitial administration has yet to issue a statement on the arrest of Salas, who is also a “special assistant to the governor’s office, geothermal/renewable energy advisor.”
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested Salas, 42, on Friday on the charge of one count of Hobbs Act extortion “while acting under color of official right.”
“If you screw up, you’ll be detained,” visiting Nevada Judge Philip M. Pro told Salas shortly after ruling yesterday on the U.S. government’s motion to detain Salas without bail.
Judge Pro said if Salas violates his pretrial release conditions, he will be arrested, held without bail and another charge of violating the court’s bail order will be filed against him.
The penalty will be served consecutively on top of the penalty to be imposed if Salas is convicted as charged.
Judge Pro heard the oral arguments of Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric O’Malley, the prosecutor, and Salas’ court-appointed defense attorney, David Banes.
After allowing Salas to be released on his own recognizance, he was told to surrender, and not to obtain another, passport; not to leave the CNMI without the federal court’s written permission; and to report to the Federal Probation Office for pretrial release services supervision.
Pro ordered Salas to “avoid all contact, directly, or indirectly, with any person who are or who may become a victim or potential witness in the [case under] investigation or prosecution, including co-workers at the Department of Public Works.”
O’Malley was told to provide specific names, or individuals, from the DPW office.
When called to testify, FBI special agent Edmund Harrison Ewing told the court that Salas mentioned a DPW co-worker who also received bribe.
Salas gave a “general statement” about the corruption at DPW, Ewing added.
He said when Salas was arrested, four laptops were seen inside his vehicle which could not be immediately opened until a search warrant was secured.
When the search warrant was secured on the next day by FBI special agent Haejun Park, the laptops were already missing from Salas’ vehicle which was in the FBI’s parking lot.
The laptops were later traced, and recovered from the residence of Salas’ girlfriend, known only as “Fe.”
Ewing said when they contacted the Department of Corrections, they learned that Salas placed a phone call to a woman, later identified as Fe.
Ewing said the FBI believed that the laptops “contained evidence.”
Judge Pro said he did not find Salas a danger to the community or a flight risk, but expressed “considerable concern” with the defendant’s “failure” to be “candid with his prior record.”
Federal Probation Officer Margarita Wonenberg testified that when she asked the defendant, “Have you ever been arrested before?,” Salas was “less than forthcoming.”
Salas replied that he had not been arrested before.
Banes said perhaps the defendant didn’t understand the question.
Wonenberg said according to the National Crime Information Center, Salas had a previous record.
Salas, then 19 years old, was convicted of assault with a firearm and was convicted again in 2002 of receiving stolen property and burglary.
Both convictions occurred in California.
With the CNMI’s Department of Public Safety, Wonenberg said Salas has a pending investigation on a complaint of theft of service.
O’Malley said Salas had shown a “pattern…of obstruction.”
But Banes said the prosecution failed to present any evidence that his client was a danger to the community or a flight risk.
What the prosecution only presented, Banes added, was “unspecified fear.”
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