Torres: We will learn from this

Although it remains unclear how an inmate escaped from the Commonwealth Health Center last Wednesday evening with two Department of Corrections officers on guard, DOC Commissioner Anthony Torres has taken the incident as a lesson to learn from and an opportunity to improve moving forward.

At around 8pm last Wednesday evening, Joey Maratita—a man who was arrested last Friday for charges related to the unauthorized entry incident at the Chacha Oceanview Middle School last week—escaped from under the noses of two DOC officers while he was being medically treated at CHC.

Fortunately, at around 11:59pm, Maratita was located and detained by DOC officers at the Old Japanese Jail in Gualo Rai unharmed.

DOC commissioner Torres did not disclose what Maratita was brought to CHC for in the first place, but he did state that he has since been medically cleared from CHC allowing his return to DOC where he now remains under isolation.

Torres said currently, an investigation remains ongoing on the events of Wednesday evening that led to Maratita’s escape.

“Maratita fled from CHC through from the emergency room. How it happened is still pending investigation so I cannot comment on it yet. There’s still an investigation going on especially since this is a big deal,” he said.

Torres, looking on the bright side, said this incident will serve as a learning experience for DOC, and other local law enforcement agencies that aided in the search for Maratita.

“The collaboration and the joint effort between agencies was great. DPS’ patrol and K-9 units come out to assist. We even had help from the U.S. Marshals Service, other law enforcement agencies, and I also came out with my staff to help in the search for the inmate. I’m going to call for an after-action meeting sometime next week to look at some of the things [we can improve on] with our other partners because this is something that if another emergency like this happens, we need to know what our options are. There is always room for improvement,” he said.

One of the good things that came out of the incident, Torres shared, was the opportunity for law enforcement agencies to come together and work with one another during the search.

“I will say, for something like this to happen and have everybody come together collaboratively is how we should be as a Commonwealth. We should be working together in times of crisis. Unfortunately, things like this happen even in other areas of the world. This is something we can learn from,” he said.

Now that Maratita is back under DOC custody, Saipan Tribune learned that the inmate could possibly be facing additional charges in relation to his escape.

As for the DOC officers who were in charge of Maratita last Wednesday evening, Torres said he could not disclose what actions would be taken against them, if any at all, as there is still a pending investigation.