‘NMI’s most active pro se litigant’ thrown back to jail

John S. Pangelinan, a man who was previously convicted over his threatening letter and recently called by a federal court judge as Commonwealth’s most active pro se litigant, was ordered yesterday to spend 10 months in jail.

U.S. District Court for the NMI designated judge Juan T. Lizama revoked Pangelinan’s probation in his criminal conviction for violating numerous terms and conditions of his probation.

Lizama remanded the defendant into the custody of the U.S. Marshal.

The judge reserved ruling on Pangelinan’s request to serve his jail time on Saipan.

At the hearing, Lizama inquired as to whether Pangelinan admitted or denied the allegations.

The defendant who was with counsel Steven Pixley denied one allegation and admitted to others.

In Sept. 27, 2006, a federal jury found Pangelinan guilty for his letter to the editor dated June 1, 2006, and another letter to the editor on June 19, 2006.

The defense’s argument was that Pangelinan was just exercising his freedom of expression in writing the two letters to the editor.

But the prosecution asserted that the issue is not about writing the letters to the editor, but the threat in the letters.

In January 2007, U.S. District Court for the NMI designated presiding judge Wiseman imposed a one-year prison term on Pangelinan.

The defendant appealed.

In October 2007, The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has reversed the conviction of Pangelinan on one count of obstruction of a court order. The appellate, however, affirmed the conviction of the same charge in the other count.

Wiseman amended the judgment to reflect his conviction of one count. However, the judge imposed the same sentence.

On Jan. 7, 2008, Pangelinan was released from the Bureau of Prisons, four months past his full-term release date because he refused to sign release documents.

On Jan. 22, 2008, Pangelinan was arrested and brought to the federal court after the U.S. Probation Office reported that the defendant violated his supervised release condition for not reporting 72 hours after his release from prison.

Since that hearing, the U.S. Probation Office said the defendant violated many violations such as failing to pay $25 special assessment fee, failing to show for drug and alcohol testing, and not allowing a probation officer to visit him at his home.

The Probation Office also alleged that Pangelinan also failed to pay his $7,500 fine.

Pangelinan was recently arrested following the U.S. Probation’s filing of violation report.

In January 2008, Pangelinan filed the $61.1 million lawsuit against judges Munson and Wiseman.

He also named as co-defendants in his lawsuit two lawyers, a federal prosecutor, an FBI agent, two federal probation officers, two U.S. Marshals, and seven other people.

In the lawsuit he filed pro se or without a lawyer, Pangelinan even sued 13 grand jurors and 12 jurors.

The federal court recently dismissed the lawsuit. U.S. District Court for the NMI designated judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood ruled that the lawsuit “is repetitive, meritless, vexatious, abusive, and burdensome.”

Tydingo-Gatewood also sanctioned Pangelinan to pay attorneys’ fees and court costs to all non-federal defendants he included in his litigation.

In a separate order, the judge gave Pangelinan until May 22, 2008, at 3:30pm to explain why he should not be declared to be a vexatious litigant.

Tydingco-Gatewood described the plaintiff as the Commonwealth’s most active pro se litigant.