Govendo suppresses evidence vs Capt. Ogumoro

Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo yesterday suppressed all evidence seized during the raid at the house of former acting police director Capt. Aniceto Ogumoro.

In granting Capt. Ogumoro’s motion to suppress evidence, Govendo determined there was no probable cause to support the search of the defendant’s house on Capitol Hill.

Govendo underscored the need for police officers to undergo more training with respect to the proper way of seeking search and arrest warrants because of the importance of what they are trying to do.

The judge said training is very important because, in executing the search warrant, the officers are entering people’s houses, their private places, which is protected by the 4th Amendment.

Govendo said there are many dots that should have been connected and that the chief prosecutor should not have signed the affidavit of probable cause.

Govendo issued a bench ruling after defense attorneys Viola Alepuyo and Stephanie Flores presented former representative and police major Claudio K. Norita to the witness stand as an expert in investigation procedures.

Norita testified that the affidavit of probable cause prepared by Detective Christopher Leon Guerrero was not enough to support the search and arrest warrant.

Norita said the detective should have interviewed more witnesses to corroborate the credibility of the witness or informant.

During direct examination by Alepuyo, Norita said that, if he is the supervisor of Leon Guerrero, he would ask the detective to go back and get more information before preparing the affidavit of probable cause.

Norita said knowing the proper procedures in the investigation is very important to cover the police and the department as a whole in what they are doing.

When asked by Saipan Tribune to comment, Flores said they are obviously very happy that Govendo granted the motion.

“It means a lot to Aniceto and his family,” Flores said.

Flores said they are going to file the same motion in the case against Aniceto Ogumoro’s brother, Ambrosio Ogumoro.

Alepuyo said it was a Franks hearing, which means that they were challenging the procedure that the detective followed in order to get the information to put in the affidavit.

Alepuyo and Flores asserted that proper procedures were not followed when the detective went to get the search and arrest warrant.

“It was not the way that they [police officers] are trained to do it. So that’s why we decided to attack the affidavit in support of the arrest warrant and the search warrant,” Flores added.

Police arrested Aniceto T. Ogumoro in February 2006 after they raided his house on Capitol Hill where they allegedly recovered three rifles and 25 boxes of ammunitions.

The arrest of Capt. Ogumoro was made a day after police arrested his brother, Department of Public Safety range master Ambrosio T. Ogumoro, on allegations he beat up his wife and for illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Police said that, during the raid at Capt. Ogumoro’s residence, they recovered a Remington rifle with a weaver scope, a Ruger Mini 14 caliber .223 rifle, and a Colt AR 15 rifle.

Police said they also found 25 boxes (each box containing five rounds) of Winchester super buckshot 12 gauge rounds.

The 44-year-old police captain was charged with two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, one count of possession of a weapon without proper registration, and one count of unlawful possession of ammunition.