ZAJI O. Zajradhara has accused Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI of judicial misconduct in handling the lawsuits he had filed in federal court.
Zajradhara is also asking Judge Manglona to recuse herself from presiding in the lawsuits he filed against PC Bargain, and Commonwealth Covid-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program Administrator Ephiphanio “Epi” Cabrera and CCERA employee Dana Calvo.
Zajradhara, who is representing himself, likewise requested the federal court to give him an additional 30 days to amend his complaint and/or to locate counsel to represent him or assist him with amending his complaint against PC Bargain, Cabrera and Calvo.
In an order issued Sept. 21, the judge granted the plaintiff’s 30-day extension request but denied his motion that she recuses herself from the two lawsuits.
Judge Manglona directed the plaintiff to file his amended complaint against Cabrera and Calvo by Oct. 19, and against PC Bargain by Oct. 25.
In both cases, the judge said, “because there is no operative complaint pending, all other motions, including the motion to recuse, are denied without prejudice to refile at a later time.”
According to Zajradhara, Judge Manglona has “deliberately violated his personal liberties and/or has wantonly refused to provide due process and equal protection to the litigant before the court or has behaved in a manner inconsistent with that which is needed for full, fair, impartial hearings.”
He said the United States Constitution guarantees an unbiased judge who will always provide litigants with full protection of all rights.
He further alleged that Judge Manglona deliberately violated his “Fourteenth Amendment rights of due process and access in a timely manner to the court while at the same time, she allows all manner of non-American citizens, Russians in the CNMI illegally, Chinese, Filipinos who are illegally within the borders of America to have direct access to the court.”
He said the judge attempts to label him as a “frivolous litigant” while “misusing the screening mechanism in order to defend and litigate for the respondents from behind the bench.”
“This judge makes a mockery of the Constitution and the laws, and penalties thereof by being an advocator and activist judge for non-American citizens’ continued and ongoing violations of America’s immigration laws,” Zajradhara said.
“Lastly, it should be noted that this judge knows full well the rampant violations of the CW-1 visa policies; yet she does nothing to issue penalties and or sentences in order to deter further violations of America’s immigration/employment laws; the matters before her are within both immigration and employment, and the complainant does not believe due to this judge’s past violations of the complainant’s constitutional rights that she could be a fair, unbiased and impartial jurist in these matters before her,” Zajradhara added.
The plaintiff also attached a letter dated July 26, 2022 from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Office of the Circuit Executive acknowledging receipt of Zajradhara’s judicial misconduct complaint against Judge Manglona.
In her two separate previous rulings, Judge Manglona dismissed without prejudice Zajradhara’s lawsuits against PC Bargain, Cabrera and Calvo, but granted his request to pursue his claims without paying court fees, and allowed him to amend his lawsuits if he so wishes.
In Zajaradhara’s lawsuit against PC Bargain, Judge Manglona dismissed without prejudice his entire First Amended Complaint that asserted a 42 U.S.C. §1981 claim, immigration violations claim, and failure to hire claim.
The judge directed him to file a second amended complaint correcting the deficiencies identified in his first amended complaint.
Zajradhara was ordered to file the amended complaint no later than Sept. 25, 2022.
Zajradhara has alleged discrimination based on race, national origin, religion, and color of skin in his lawsuit against PC Bargain in federal court and demanded an undetermined amount of damages.
He filed the lawsuit after receiving a dismissal and notice of rights from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding his Civil Rights Act complaint.
As for Zajradhara’s complaint against CCERA’s Cabrera and Calvo, Judge Manglona, in an order on Aug. 18, stated that the complaint fails to state a claim on which relief could be granted. The court then dismissed the complaint but with leave to amend.
In his complaint against Cabrera and Calvo, Zajradhara claimed that the CNMI government 1) was misusing, misdirecting, and/or misappropriating federal funds intended for recipients of the Commonwealth Covid-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program or CCERA; 2) was discriminating against him as “evidenced by illegal actions it has taken against him in violation of § 1983”; 3) overtly retaliated against him as a “minority American citizen” for “bringing attention to rampant visa fraud, misuse of the visa system, and illegal registering of CW-1 workers as business owners”; and 4) unjustly denied payment of his telephone and internet bill despite utilities being covered under the CCERA.
Zajradhara seeks relief in the form of 1) an injunction compelling the CNMI government to pay “all CCERA Rental Unit telephone and Internet” utility bills; 2) a cease-and-desist order against the CNMI government to stop harassing him; 3) an audit of all programs and funding uses under the CCERA; and 4) monetary damages for pain, suffering, inconvenience, and loss of income if the CNMI does not respond in timely fashion and his telephone and internet services are disconnected.
He said he files this claim on behalf of himself and “the general public.”
His claims were dismissed without prejudice for failure to state a claim, while his other federal claims were dismissed without prejudice for being frivolous, Judge Manglona said.
She added that if Zajradhara seeks to pursue his 42 U.S.C. § 2000d and § 1983 claims, he must file a First Amended Complaint no later than Sept. 19, 2022.
In September 2019, the CNMI Department of Labor-Administrative Hearing Office granted a motion for sanctions against Zajradhara over a labor complaint he filed against a restaurant for not hiring him as a waiter.
According to the hearing office, “It is an uncontroverted fact that [Zajradhara] has a history of filing many labor complaints.”
In March 2019, six House members 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….”
