Angello says no setback in district court’s order

The U.S. District Court imposed no sanction on former Northern Marianas College professor Jack Angello for asking the college to produce documents even though the court earlier rejected a similar request by the professor in his pending suit versus the NMC.

Angello said the court’s ruling that he could not use in evidence any documents obtained from the NMC through his Open Government Act request could not be considered as a setback in his civil action against the college.

The court’s order excluding certain documents came about recently following its earlier denial of the professor’s untimely request for the production of some of those documents. Angello made an OGA request to the NMC after such denial.

Angello said the court clearly recognized his right to make an OGA request to the NMC. He pointed out that the court rejected the NMC’s request to impose sanctions on him for making the OGA request.

NMC’s attorney, F. Matthew Smith, had said in documents submitted to court that Angello’s OGA request showed the professor’s lack of respect for the court.

But Angello’s counsel, Danilo Aguilar, opposed the request for sanctions, saying that the OGA request was not part of the pending federal court case.

“As defendant’s [NMC] counsel continually points out in his misdirected attempts to taint [Angello’s] reputation, Angello is not attempting to disrespect an order from this court via backdoor methods, but is actively involved in several legitimate matters of litigation and research involving the NMC,” Aguilar stated in a document submitted to court.

“If the NMC documentation that [Angello] requested in his OGA letter…is given to [him] and it appears in this case at hand, then the court has the option to order the removal of such documentation, if warranted,” Aguilar said.

Aguilar said the documents requested in the OGA letter were not exactly the same ones requested by the professor in the court proceedings. While some requested documents were the same, he said majority of them were not.

Aguilar also questioned Smith’s standing as counsel for the NMC, saying that the latter should show that he has been designated assistant attorney general. Aguilar cited the constitutional provision that the Attorney General should represent the CNMI government in all legal matters.

However, the court’s order that ruled on the exclusion of certain documents in evidence made no mention about Smith’s standing as the NMC’s legal counsel.

Angello’s lawsuit stemmed from his termination from NMC sometime in 2002, during the tenure of then college president Kenneth Wright.