AS part of their 10 motions to dismiss the charges against Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, his attorneys have also requested the Superior Court to select a jury panel from the entire CNMI voter registration list and not just from Saipan.
Superior Court Judge Pro Tem Alberto E. Tolentino has scheduled the start of the jury trial for July 5, 2022.
On April 8, 2022, the Office of the Attorney General filed criminal charges against the governor, alleging 12 counts of misconduct in public office and one count of theft relating to the issuance of airline tickets for business class, first class, or other premium class travel for himself and/or first lady Diann T. Torres. The governor was also accused of contempt for failure to appear in compliance with a legislative subpoena.
Torres has denied the charges.
Represented by attorneys Victorino Torres, Matthew Holley, Viola Alepuyo, and Anthony Aguon, the governor has asked the court to dismiss all charges.
As for his attorneys’ motion pertaining to the jury pool, it states that the CNMI poses an even greater problem to non-local litigants than would a state court, because it is composed of several sparsely populated islands.
“In order to address this problem, the jury selection rules for the United States District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands draw from residents of Tinian and Saipan, Rota and even the Northern Islands,” the governor’s lawyers stated.
They said with respect to Superior Court trials, “the general practice within the Commonwealth is to select jurors from Saipan for jury trials held on Saipan, from Rota for jury trials held on Rota, and from Tinian for jury trials held on Tinian.”
The CNMI is divided into four main voting districts: Rota, Tinian, Saipan, and the Northern Islands, the governor’s lawyers stated.
“Each of these districts may be characterized as a small, close-knit community. In such small island communities, it is easy for jurors to be swayed by extrajudicial information and personal considerations. This is especially so for Governor Torres. Governor Torres was elected by a majority of voters from across the CNMI in 2014 and 2018. As Governor of the CNMI, Governor Torres deals with all the islands. The policies he makes also apply to every island. Furthermore, some of the trips referenced in this case deal with trips to the other islands. Because Governor Torres’ work deals directly with all of the islands, it is difficult for the members of the small knit communities not to have an opinion of the Governor. To exacerbate this issue, Governor Torres’ recent impeachment and resulting lawsuits, the criminal charges recently filed against him, and all of the resulting publicity, have made it nearly impossible for all the CNMI voters to come up with an unbiased opinion of him. This may make it difficult to find a sufficient number of unbiased jurors. And although a defendant does not have the right to be tried by a particular jury, that defendant is still entitled to a fair and impartial jury.”
Accordingly, his lawyers said, “Governor Torres submits that the most practical method of ensuring a sufficiently large jury pool is to draw jurors from all the islands and not just Saipan. The need for judicial economy weighs in favor of having a larger jury pool.”
Chief Solicitor J. Robert Glass Jr. of the AG’s office is prosecuting the case.
