Villanueva pleads not guilty to contempt

Shayne Blanco Villanueva has pleaded not guilty to the contempt charge filed against him by the Office of the Attorney General for refusing to answer questions during a legislative investigation on the previous administration’s Building Optimism, Opportunity, and Stability Together grant program.

Yesterday, after nearly an hour of arguments, Villanueva pleaded not guilty before Superior Court Presiding Judge Roberto Naraja to the contempt charge filed against him by the OAG pursuant to his failure to answer BOOST-related questions.

Villanueva’s lawyer, Keith Chambers, initially argued that his client could not enter a plea as he is entitled to a preliminary hearing to determine if there was probable cause to charge Villanueva with contempt.

In addition, Chambers claimed that the information filed against his client was defective and omitted information.

However, Naraja denied the motion stating that if a judge had already signed the warrant for Villanueva’s arrest, probable cause had already been determined. This prompted the defense to enter a plea of not guilty.

After the hearing, Chambers and Villanueva refused to comment while assistant attorney general James Kingman said he appreciated the judge’s decision not to postpone the arraignment.

“On the last minute, the defense filed a motion trying to push the arraignment off and the judge was not inclined to do so, which I appreciate. There are procedures to these things, and I certainly hope that everyone follows them appropriately otherwise we’re just going to continue to see delays,” he said.

The contempt charge filed against Villanueva came after he refused to answer the questions of the House Special Committee Federal Assistance & Disaster-Related Funding that is investigating the federally-funded Building Optimism, Opportunities and Stability Together or BOOST program of the previous administration. Villanueva appeared before the committee on March 5, 2024, and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked questions about BOOST.

Villanueva is the owner of Roil Soil Marketing, which the administration of then-governor Ralph DLG Torres contracted to help market and promote the $17-million BOOST program in 2022.

According to the House committee that’s investigating the BOOST program, the documents it gathered indicated that Villanueva was paid by the previous administration $215,000 “at the very least,” for marketing the program.

After refusing to respond to the committee’s questions, the committee found him in contempt, and Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) transmitted to Attorney General Edward Manibusan a “certification of statement of contempt” pertaining to Villanueva.

The speaker cited 1 CMC Section 1306(a), which states that “a person shall be in contempt if the person…having appeared fails or refuses to testify under oath or affirmation.”

“Villanueva is clearly in contempt as he has refused to answer any questions posed by the committee regardless of the question’s incriminatory nature. Consequently, the committee, by majority vote of its members, determined that his actions established contempt and moved to report this fact to the House of Representatives on March 5, 2024, by a unanimous vote,” the speaker said.

Last March 22, Villanueva self-surrendered to the Department of Corrections pursuant to a Superior Court issued arrest warrant dated March 11. He bailed himself out soon after.