Prosecution rests its case vs Villagomez, Santoses

* Closing arguments set to begin tomorrow[/B]

The prosecution rested yesterday its case in the ongoing jury trial of Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez and co-defendants James A. Santos and Joaquina V. Santos, with former Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Anthony C. Guerrero completing his testimony.

After a discussion with prosecution and defense lawyers, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Alex R. Munson scheduled the closing arguments for Thursday, April 23, at 8:30am. Munson excused the jurors and told them to return on Thursday.

David J. Lujan, Victorino Torres, and Ramon Quichocho, counsels for Villagomez, James Santos, and Joaquina Santos respectively, told Munson they would not call any witness.

Munson also denied yesterday the defendants’ motion for a judgment of acquittal.

Guerrero took the witness stand last Thursday.
After Torres and Quichocho, Lujan began his extensive cross-examination of Guerrero last Friday. Lujan resumed his questioning of the former CUC executive director on Monday and completed the cross-examination yesterday at 11:05am.

Leilani Lujan, a co-counsel for Villagomez, moved for judgment of acquittal. Lawyers Victorino and Quichocho joined in the motion.

The defense lawyers argued that the prosecution failed to present enough evidence to support the charges of conspiracy to defraud and to commit offenses against the United States, wire fraud, theft concerning a program receiving federal funds, and bribery concerning a program receiving federal funds.

Leilani Lujan said the prosecution failed to show evidence that would satisfy the elements of the charges against Villagomez.

Saying there was no conspiracy, Leilani Lujan noted, among other things, that Guerrero had testified that he had no agreement with any of the defendants to defraud and commit offenses against the United States.

Leilani Lujan said there’s absolutely no evidence presented that Villagomez accepted a bribe in the purchase of Rydlyme.

“All we have are speculations and innuendos,” she said, adding that there was not even circumstantial evidence to support the bribery charges.

Torres said there’s no evidence that the $15,000 given by Joaquina Santos to Villagomez was a form of bribe.

With respect to the 2007 purchase of Rydlyme, Torres said that James Santos only sent an e-mail to CUC and delivered the product. The lawyer said James Santos did not use his position as then Commerce Secretary to get the contract.

He said there was no false pretense on James Santos part and in fact at the time when he delivered Rydlyme to CUC he even showed two invoices.

Quichocho said the testimony of the government’s witnesses showed there is absolutely no agreement between the defendants.

“By that alone the conspiracy fails,” Quichocho said.

O’Malley asserted that there is more than enough evidence to support all the charges.

In denying the motion, Munson ruled that the evidence presented is sufficient to sustain a conviction.