Adding insult to injury

In your article of April 25 story, “Guilty! Jury finds Villagomez, Santos couple guilty,” U.S. Attorney Leonardo Rapadas was quoted to have said, “Government corruption has always been high on the priority list for the Department of Justice. And it is sad to see that in small areas like CNMI we have government corruption that has reached into the highest levels.” These are racist and condescending remarks. Really, Mr. Rapadas, were you trying to say that something like what’s going on in Illinois should not be happening here because we are “in small areas like CNMI?”

And, let me see, are you familiar with these remarks by some defense attorneys in a recent case, “The corrupt conduct of [government] attorneys…in the case. This jury verdict was obtained unlawfully; the misconduct of government prosecutors…was stunning. It is a sad story and a warning to everyone. Any citizen can be convicted if prosecutors are hell-bent on ignoring the Constitution and willing to present false evidence.” This was a case involving five of your colleagues in the Justice Department.

The point, here, Mr. Rapadas, is we all make mistakes in our lives. Don’t blow it out of proportion. If justice is done in this case, so be it; but like you say, we are in small areas, so we know the victims and we sympathize with their families. But, please, refrain from preaching to us about law and order.

But, what infuriates me even more is the fact that we could have prevented your insensitive boastfulness if only our Commonwealth officials had done their job. Unlike the case in Illinois, this was not a federal case; no federal funds were misappropriated. It was unnecessary for the federal government to get involved. The public auditor should have turned over to the attorney general the findings of his investigations (and I think he did), and the attorney general pursuant to the CNMI Constitution should have prosecuted Mr. Villagomez and the other defendants. Instead, the attorney general violated his oath of office by not “prosecuting violations of Commonwealth law.” As a result, another instance where we let the federal government wipe up our mess because we can’t count on own officials to do the dirty job. The public deserves to know what role former attorney general Mathew Gregory played in this case; his malfeasance did a huge disservice to our people.

The last time I read the CNMI Constitution, the Office of the Public Auditor was a CNMI government agency. As such, the public auditor had no authority to be leaking or feeding information to the U. S. Attorney. And to add insult to injury, after failing to perform his duties and responsibilities as CNMI attorney general to prosecute Mr. Villagomez, his office provided “some assistance” to the U. S. Attorney as well.