Co-defendant of ex-Sgt. Tagabuel in insurance scam pleads guilty

Serafin Amog Esperancilla, a co-defendant of former police sergeant Hillary John Tagabuel in a car insurance scam case, pleaded guilty yesterday in the Superior Court.

Esperancilla, a Filipino, was given a suspended sentence, but as soon as he stepped out from the courtroom, two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents handcuffed him and brought him to the ICE office.

Esperancilla, alias Raffy, appeared in court with his counsel, assistant public defender Matt Meyer.

The defendant signed a plea agreement with the government. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit theft by deception, and theft by deception.

Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo sentenced Esperancilla to six years in prison, all suspended except 10 days.

Esperancilla was given 10 days for the time he already served in jail. It means he will no longer serve jail term in the insurance scam case.

Govendo placed the defendant on six years of probation.

The judge said pursuant to the plea agreement, the defendant agreed to testify truthfully in the trial of another co-defendant, Yu Jai Feng Cepeda.

Govendo said after the trial of Cepeda, Esperancilla is going to depart the CNMI.

Under the plea agreement, Govendo said, Esperancilla will not oppose removal proceedings against him in the Immigration Court.

Govendo ordered the defendant to pay a $500 fine, plus court costs and probation fee.

Esperancilla was ordered to pay restitution to the victims in an amount to be determined by the Office of Adult Probation. He was required to perform 100 hours of community work service.

The prosecution said that on Oct. 29, 2007 to January 2008, Esperancilla along with Tagabuel and Cepeda agreed to file false insurance claims against Century Insurance and Aon Insurance by falsifying information about car crashes to obtain money from the insurance companies.

Court records show that Esperancilla also figured in a vehicular accident in 2001 in As Terlaje that according to Royal Crown Insurance was highly questionable. He and businessman Bernardo A. Hiponia sued the insurance company for rejecting their insurance claims.

In 2005, a Superior Court jury found Royal Crown liable to pay over $120,000 in damages to Esperancilla and Hiponia. Then associate judge Juan T. Lizama later reduced the award from $120,000 to $106,000.

Citing some irregularities, including that the damaged portions to both vehicles do not support a head-on collision, the insurance company appealed to the CNMI Supreme Court.

The CNMI Supreme Court in 2010 affirmed all of the damages awarded by the trial court. The high court reversed some of the litigation costs that Lizama awarded the plaintiffs as they were not allowed by Commonwealth statute.

In June 2008, the Office of the Attorney General charged Esperancilla and co-defendants over the insurance scam.

A detective said Tagabuel admitted forging a total of 41 traffic crash reports.

Last Aug. 1, Tagabuel pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit theft by deception, and to assault and battery, criminal mischief in a domestic violence case.