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Ex-House Speaker Sablan, son charged for the taking of birds
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Posted on May 28 2006
Former House Speaker Vicente M. Sablan and his son Frank Sablan were indicted in federal court for taking endangered birds in Obyan and in Dandan.
Vicente M. Sablan, Frank Sablan, and Sablan and Sons Enterprises, were charged with two counts of taking an endangered species.
During a hearing yesterday, Vicente M. Sablan, through counsel Joseph Camacho, pleaded not guilty.
Frank Sablan, who was arrested by Division of Fish and Wildlife special agent George Phocas Thursday, appeared in court without counsel and pleaded not guilty.
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Alex R. Munson imposed a $5,000 unsecured bond for the temporary release of the defendants.
Munson set a bench trial in the case for July 31, 2006.
Assistant U.S. attorneys Craig Moore and Timothy Moran appeared in court for the U.S. government.
According to the indictment, on July 8, 2005 and July 27, 2005, the Sablans and the Sablan and Sons Enterprises “unlawfully and knowingly attempted to take, solicited another to take, and caused the taking of an endangered species of wildlife—one or more nightingale reed-warblers.”
The indictment said the defendants made the taking of such species by “cutting down and causing to be cut down tangan-tangan trees” in Obyan and in Dandan.
No other details were given.
Last month, former Rep. Ignacio DLG. Demapan and three other men were also charged in federal court for taking the endangered nightingale reed-warblers in 2005.
Saipan Tribune learned that the Division of Fish and Wildlife claimed they had informed the defendants about the presence of the endangered birds nesting in their respective lands.
The defendants allegedly cleared their lands, including the portion where the nesting birds were located.
