Torres: We don’t even know why we’re here

The Superior Court has granted the CNMI government leave to file a new penal summons against former governor Ralph DLG Torres in the new contempt case filed against him by assistant attorney general James Kingman.

This comes soon after Torres’ lawyer, Joaquin “Jack” Torres, complained that the penal summons issued against his client was improperly served.

Judge pro tem Arthur Barcinas, who yesterday presided over multiple hearings at the Guma Hustisia pertaining to the ongoing civil and criminal cases against Ralph DLG Torres, postponed an arraignment hearing for the ex-governor, saying he would not act on the matter due to improper service of the summons.

Jack Torres had expressed concerns that, to his client’s knowledge, he was appearing in court in compliance with a penal summons and that his client was unaware that he was summoned to court for an arraignment as he wasn’t even provided information along with the penal summons.

“My client received the penal summons on Dec. 7, but we don’t know why we’re here. We don’t have any information. I contacted the officer who served my client but we still don’t have the information. We want to know what he is being charged with. It’s been 11 days already and we still don’t have that, so we don’t know why we’re here other than complying with a penal summons. We’re here for an arraignment but we don’t even know what our client is being arraigned for. The government filed their information on Oct. 27 and the penal summons was not issued until Dec. 7. Where is the due process here?” he asked.

Kingman said he would provide the defense with a copy of the information and possibly proceed with the arraignment. He said a lack of resources resulted in him being unable to provide a hard copy of the information to the defense during the hearing.

To this, Barcinas explained that pursuant to CNMI law, a penal summons must be accompanied with the information.

Because of this, Barcinas said he will schedule the matter for another hearing and arraignment once the CNMI government can “effectuate proper service” pursuant to CNMI law.

On April 8, 2022, the OAG filed a criminal case against Torres, alleging 12 counts of misconduct in public office and one count of theft relating to the issuance of airline tickets for business class, first class, or other premium class travel for himself and/or Diann T. Torres, his wife.

The case also alleged one count of contempt for failure to appear in compliance with a legislative subpoena.

However, in August 2022. judge pro tem Alberto Tolentino dismissed the contempt charge against Torres. Specifically, Tolentino found that chief solicitor J. Robert Glass, the head prosecutor in the criminal case against Torres, may have been exposed to privileged and confidential information that prevents him from prosecuting Torres for contempt, therefore the charge was dismissed.

Last month, Kingman filed a new suit against Torres, charging the former governor anew with contempt over his failure to comply with a legislative subpoena last December 2021.

Aside from contempt, Kingman also charged Torres with misconduct in public office for failing to appear in compliance with a legislative subpoena.