‘AGO to drop charges vs Stanley’

Less than two years after the controversial raid at his House of Representatives office in Capitol Hill, former congressman Stanley Torres could be vindicated in connection with the case against him, as the Attorney General’s Office might possibly drop the criminal charges today.

A source privy to negotiations between Torres’ camp and the AGO disclosed yesterday that the latter had agreed to dismiss the charges against the former lawmaker and his co-defendant Dorothy Sablan.

The parties would appear before Superior Court judge Juan T. Lizama in a hearing today about the criminal case that tagged the former congressman in an alleged fraudulent scheme of employing a purported ghost employee.

Yesterday, Torres’ lawyer, former attorney general Robert Torres, and deputy attorney general Clyde Lemons Jr., who is prosecuting the case, appeared before Lizama’s office for a conference regarding the former congressman’s case.

The source said the lawyers briefed the judge on what to expect during today’s proceeding.

Robert Torres and Lemons could not be reached for interview yesterday afternoon. The former lawmaker refused to issue comments, but said that “anything can happen in the last minute.”

The former lawmaker said he would make official comments on the case after today’s hearing.

Stanley Torres has earlier asked the court to suppress evidence obtained by the Office of Public Auditor even before the controversial Dec. 11, 2003 raid.

The court had suppressed substantial amount of evidence obtained during that raid and another one on Feb. 25, 2004, which Torres’ camp assailed as illegal. Lemons had conceded that evidence seized during those raids should be suppressed.

This sudden development came about earlier this year even as the court had set the trial to begin by July 5, after Torres’ camp discovered that the government was armed with a defective search warrant during the controversial 2003 raid.

The document carried by OPA investigator Richard Lamkin appeared to be his affidavit, which was approved by CNMI chief prosecutor David Hutton and then assistant attorney general Karen Severy as to form, and notarized by Superior Court judge Kenneth Govendo.

Robert Torres said the court issued no warrant to search Stanley Torres’ office. He also noted court procedures that a policeman or an attorney for the government should be the ones who should request for a warrant—not the public auditor. The congressman did not consent to the searches on his legislative office, he added.

“The prosecution knew it executed a warrantless arrest search because they never secured the search warrant from a Superior Court judge. Most disturbing is the deliberate concealment of the fact and eagerness to prosecute despite a constitutional defect,” Robert Torres earlier said in court documents.

“On top of a warrantless search, the AGO memorandum reveals the depth of the complicity between OPA and AGO to conceal this illegal search and seizure,” he added. “Evidence was concealed and withheld for over one year by the prosecution.”

In asking the court to additionally suppress evidence obtained before the 2003 raid, Robert Torres said that the OPA improperly seized government agency records without obtaining a warrant.

But Lemons defended the OPA’s information gathering from other government agencies and said that there was no seizure of records at all. According to Lemons, even an ordinary citizen could have obtained any records that the OPA had obtained by way of an Open Government Act request.

Robert Torres responded by saying that no constitutional or statutory provision authorizes the OPA to conduct a criminal investigation. He said that, while the OPA is authorized to access documents in connection with its auditing responsibilities, what occurred in Stanley’s case was no audit. He said the OPA obtained data from government agencies to build a criminal prosecution.

The former congressman and co-defendant Dorothy Sablan, who used to be the lawmaker’s office manager, are facing multiple charges of conspiracy to commit theft, conspiracy to commit theft by deception, and illegal use of public supplies, services, time and personnel.

Stanley Torres also faces multiple counts of misconduct in public office, while prosecutors have also charged Sablan with multiple counts of theft, theft by deception and receiving stolen property.

The AGO filed the charges against Torres, Sablan, and Frank Ada sometime in March 2004. The court later dismissed the charges against Ada, who used to be a legislative staff, without prejudice to their refiling.

Lemons had accused Torres and Sablan of engaging in a fraudulent scheme, wherein the latter received government monies through payroll when she did not actually perform work. Sablan allegedly received at least five checks totaling $5,384.67 even if she was actually off-island. Ada allegedly prepared fraudulent time and attendance sheets indicating that Sablan rendered work when she was away.