Zaji Zajradhara
(MV) — At about 1:10 p.m. Wednesday, police apprehended Zaji Obatala Zajradhara, 57, on the charge of terroristic threatening.
At about 11:26 a.m. also on Wednesday, the Department of Public Safety received a call regarding a possible threat against the CNMI Department of Labor on Capital Hill. Police were dispatched to the scene.
At the scene, police met with an employee who stated that she was on a phone call with one of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance applicants who stated that he would go up and begin shooting if he had a gun.
Police units have secured the scene.
In March 2019, Rep. Janet U. Maratita and five other lawmakers introduced House Resolution 21-5 “to declare Zaji O. Zajradhara, formerly known as Steven Carl Farmer, a persona non-grata in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.”
According to the resolution, the Legislature is “cognizant of the malicious and ill-mannered actions of Zaji O. Zajradhara…in his filings of numerous labor claims against various businesses in the CNMI….”
The resolution stated that Zajradhara “has also expressed a violent and threatening nature to such businesses…and to the employees of the Department of Labor….”
The resolution added that Zajradhara was convicted in Wisconsin of receiving/concealing stolen property in 1995 and fifth degree domestic assault in 1997, and was deported from Japan for violating Article 24, Item 4(b) of Japan’s Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act.
In May, Zajradhara was arrested after his girlfriend accused him of assaulting her during an argument at their apartment.
The case was eventually dropped because the complainant, Zajradhara’s girlfriend, had told the court that “she did not want any stay-away order between her and Zaji.”
