Saipan Tribune

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Monday, March 18, 2013

Manglona orders status conference in Capt. Ogumoro's lawsuit

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has ordered a status conference for the lawsuit filed by police Capt. Aniceto Ogumoro in 2008 against then acting Department of Public Safety commissioner Juan I. Wabol and other police officers.

In her order issued on Friday, Manglona directed Ogumoro and other parties in the lawsuit to discuss the status of the case on Wednesday, March 20, at 3:30pm.

The judge earlier ordered Ogumoro to show cause why the lawsuit should not be dismissed with prejudice for failure to prosecute.

Manglona said the case has been pending for over four years without any activity on the docket.

Manglona gave the police captain until last Wednesday, March 13, to respond to her order to show cause.

Manglona said that Ogumoro responded, asking the court not to dismiss the case.

In Ogumoro's response, deputy attorney general Viola Alepuyo disclosed a yet-to-be fulfilled final item in the settlement agreement that the CNMI government entered into: the promotion of Ogumoro to the rank of major.

In her declaration filed in court, Alepuyo said that she represented Ogumoro in the lawsuit when she was still in private practice.

Alepuyo said that Ogumoro is actively seeking a private attorney who will take over the case from her.

Alepuyo asked the court to give Ogumoro more time to find another attorney who can represent him so he could pursue the last remaining item in the parties' settlement agreement.

In his lawsuit, Ogumoro, through counsel Alepuyo, claimed that his arrest in 2006 was based on trumped up charges and was a conspiracy among then acting DPS commissioner Wabol and other police officers.

Ogumoro was the acting police director when police officers arrested him on Feb. 11, 2006, after they raided his house on Capital Hill and reportedly recovered three rifles and 25 boxes of ammunition.

The Office of the Attorney General later moved to dismiss the case after the Superior Court suppressed all the evidence seized in the raid.