Benavente claim for resentencing found with no merit

The federal court has denied the request for a review of pleadings and resentencing filed by a former firefighter whose 30-year imprisonment sentence after being convicted of sexual exploitation of a child was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

In an order on Wednesday, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona said that Richard Sullivan Benavente’s claim is without merit.

Manglona said the Ninth Circuit has affirmed the enhancement of Benavente’s sentence, that it was warranted, not because Benavente had lied while testifying in a different case, but because he had lied to government agents in violation of his plea agreement.

The judge dismissed the habeas case that Benavente filed and directed the clerk to close the case.

Benavente, who is currently serving a prison term in a prison in New York, filed a motion pro se or without a lawyer before the U.S. District Court for the NMI.

Benavente asked the court to remove the enhancement of the sentence, give him credit, and resentence him.

Benavente said his alleged lies in the Raymond Roberto case did not impede the U.S. government’s prosecution of the underlying offense for which he was charged.

In October 2017, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s imposition of 30-year prison sentence on Benavente. The Ninth Circuit judges ruled that Manglona did not abuse her discretion in imposing a two-level sentencing enhancement on Benavente.

Manglona concluded that Benavente obstructed justice by lying to the U.S. government and violating his plea agreement by testifying falsely at the trial of Roberto.

Manglona sentenced Benavente in 2016 to the statutory maximum after explaining that the defendant had enticed or coerced at least two minor girls into having sex in exchange for drugs, and had violated his plea agreement.

In October 2015, Manglona determined that Benavente lied in his testimony at the trial of Roberto, who was then charged with coercion and enticement of some of the same minors that Benavente had sexually exploited.

Roberto was acquitted.

In 2013, a federal grand jury indicted Benavente on several counts of sexual exploitation of a child. He entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. government.

In 2014, Benavente pleaded guilty to a count of sexual exploitation of a child.