Saipan Tribune

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Jury selection for Weindl's trial continues

The U.S. District Court for the NMI will continue today, Thursday, the jury selection in the trial of former school principal Thomas Weindl.

Saipan Tribune learned that Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has yet to select the jurors and that she instructed the prospective jurors to come back Thursday in the afternoon.

The jury selection began Tuesday afternoon and resumed yesterday afternoon.

The remaining charges against the 68-year-old Weindl are one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of access with intent to view child pornography, that occurred on June 18, 2012.

This developed as assistant U.S. attorney Rami S. Badawy on Monday moved to dismiss two counts of the same charges over an incident on June 15, 2012.

Assistant U.S. attorney Garth R. Backe is assisting Badawy for the prosecution. Attorney David Banes is counsel for Weindl. Attorney Michael Dotts is assisting Banes for the defense.

The U.S. government alleged that Weindl, using a Public School System-issued netbook, searched for and accessed almost 200 websites containing images of child pornography.

Weindl pleaded not guilty.