Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman has rejected as too lenient a proposed plea agreement offered by the Office of the Attorney General to a 58-year-old man accused of assaulting two police officers who tried to secure his safety after he attempted to commit suicide.
In rejecting the plea agreement entered by defendant Domingo Importado on Wednesday, Wiseman believed that a 25-day time served sentence sends a wrong message to the community.
Last March, the Office of the Attorney General charged Importado with two counts of assault and battery, and one count of resisting arrest.
The defendant and counsel assistant public defender Matthew H. Meyer signed a plea agreement with assistant attorney general Nicole D. Driscoll.
The defendant agreed to plead guilty to resisting arrest. In exchange the OAG will dismiss the remaining charges.
The plea deal will recommend a sentence of six months in prison, all suspended except for 25 days, with credit for 25 days he already served in jail.
Among other conditions is that Importado will pay a $200 fine, $25 in court costs, and a $60 probation fee. Other conditions include requiring him to perform 50 hours of community work service, write letters of apology to the two police officers, and submit to an evaluation for counseling on alcohol abuse and anger management.
According to the plea agreement, on Feb. 18, 2012 on Saipan, the defendant punched and kicked Police Officers Christopher Santos and John Wabol in an effort to resist arrest.
According to the OAG, Importado does not have a criminal history, but that the violent sequence of event involved in this case may indicate an unstable mental condition.
The OAG said Importado is accused of attacking his own vehicle with a machete, then taking the machete to the street and challenging everyone at a party to a fight.
The defendant was found apparently trying to hang himself and then resisted assistance from Police Officers Santos and Wabol who tried to secure his safety and take him into custody.
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