Villanueva to appear in court next week

The Superior Court has ordered Shayne Blanco Villanueva to appear before a judge next week pursuant to the contempt charge the Office of the Attorney General filed against him.

This comes soon after Villanueva self-surrendered to the Department of Corrections last Friday, March 22, pursuant to an arrest warrant that charged him with contempt. The same day, Villanueva posted a bail of $1,000 for his release.

The Superior Court ordered Villanueva to return to court next week, April 1, for his arraignment.

“It is hereby ordered that the defendant be released from custody and is further ordered to return to court on Monday, April1, at 9am at the Guma Hustisia, Courtroom 202A before Presiding Judge Roberto C. Naraja. All parties are ordered to appear,” states the order.

The contempt charge comes 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.

Two other former BOOST contractors, Rob Travilla and Salina Sapp, appeared before the House committee and also invoked the Fifth Amendment in refusing to answer questions about BOOST.

On March 15, 2024, Villagomez transmitted to the AG a certification of contempt pertaining to Travilla and Sapp, who were also contracted to market the BOOST program.