Babauta gets one year in prison, $5K fine

The ex-laboratory manager of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. was sentenced yesterday to one year in prison and was fined $5,000 for submitting to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency falsified documents relating to the microbiological content of the utility firm’s drinking water supply.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Alex R. Munson directed Pedro Q. Babauta to pay the cost of imprisonment at $1,933.80 per month and that of his probation at around $287 per month. Babauta will be on supervised release for three years after serving his prison term, during which he was also ordered to render some 200 hours of community service.

The judge imposed 12-month prison terms on Babauta for each count of submitting false documents, but said that the defendant would serve them concurrently.

Babauta—whose wife, incumbent CUC executive director Lorraine Babauta, watched the proceeding from the courtroom’s gallery—became speechless during his allocution, saying tersely that he wanted probation.

“He [Babauta] broke the law and breached the public trust,” Munson said. The judge said that, while it remained unknown as to how many people, if any, suffered health problems due to CUC’s contaminated water, Babauta should have reported the true quality of CUC’s water so that people could protect themselves.

News about yesterday afternoon’s sentencing on Saipan’s federal court reached the EPA office in San Francisco, with Pacific Southwest regional administrator Wayne Nastri issuing a press statement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“We are pleased with the sentence handed down in this case, as it emphasizes the need for accurate water quality laboratory data to ensure safe ocean and drinking water for all CNMI residents,” Nastri said. “Enforcement of drinking water and water quality standards provides the community with confidence that the water they swim in and drink is clean.”

U.S. Attorney Leonardo Rapadas said the federal government is pleased with the sentence, noting that Babauta faced zero to six months imprisonment under the advisory sentencing guidelines used in court.

He thanked the EPA and its local arm, the Division of Environmental Quality, for their participation in prosecuting the case. EPA special agent Gary Guerra and DEQ’s Marvin Seman investigated the case.

“We take any risk to the health of the people of Saipan very seriously and hope that this sentence sends a strong message that lying to the people of Saipan will not be permitted,” Rapadas said.

During yesterday’s proceeding, federal prosecutor Timothy Moran asked for a sentence in excess of the guidelines’ recommendation. Moran asked the court to sentence Babauta to five years imprisonment, noting the importance of the former CUC laboratory manager’s role in the utility firm and to the community.

“That water went to people’s home. That water caused a risk to people’s health,” Moran said.

Defense attorney G. Anthony Long asked the court for probation. He said his client has already resigned from the CUC and other people are already in charge of the utility firm’s laboratory.

Long also asked the court to allow Babauta to pay the $5,000 fine after one week and to confine the defendant to Saipan’s prison facility. The judge granted the request regarding the payment of fine, but said that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons would determine Babauta’s designated prison facility.

The judge allowed Babauta to temporarily retain his liberty until the Prison Bureau designates a facility where the defendant will be detained. The judge ordered the exoneration of the bail posted by Babauta when he reports to federal authorities for his imprisonment.

On June 15 this year, a federal jury found Babauta guilty on two counts of submitting false documents. Pursuant to the jury verdict, Munson convicted Babauta on the two counts and acquitted the defendant on two other counts, while declaring a mistrial on a count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. EPA.

The jury convicted Babauta on the count that accused the defendant of reducing the number of positive results in the CUC’s April 17, 2001, submission to DEQ, the EPA’s local arm.

The other count that the jury found Babauta guilty of accused the former CUC laboratory manager of omitting an entire series of water samples that showed positive results for bacteria from a monthly report to DEQ on March 6, 2003.

Prosecutors accused Babauta of intentionally falsifying water sampling test results required for submission by the DEQ to conceal the true microbiological content of the CUC’s drinking water, which was contaminated with E. coli and coliform bacteria.