Registered sex offender pleads guilty for sexually abusing girl
Price Ekon Shoiter, a 69-year-old registered sex offender, entered a guilty plea yesterday in connection with the charges that he sexually abused a 7-year-old girl at a residence in Dandan.
Shoiter signed a plea agreement with the government and pleaded guilty to the offenses of impermissible contact with minors and sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree.
Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo accepted Shoiter’s guilty plea and the plea deal.
Govendo set the sentencing for July 5, 2016 at 1:30pm.
Govendo ordered the Office of the Adult Probation to prepare a presentence investigation report.
Under the plea agreement, the defendant shall be sentenced to 15 years in prison, all suspended except for an open sentence of five to 10 years to be determined at a sentencing hearing after a presentence investigation has been conducted.
The prison sentence shall be served day for day without the possibility of parole, early release, or work release.
Shoiter will also be given credit for time served.
After completing the prison term, the defendant will be placed on supervised probation for five years.
Shoiter will be required to pay a $500 probation fee, $100 fine, and $25 in court costs.
The defendant shall abide by all the terms and conditions of the Sex Offender Registry, including notifying the Department of Public Safety of any address changes within two days of said change, and not living in a household with any non-biological minors.
Shoiter will also be prohibited from having contact with the victim during the entire probationary period. He will be required to continue to register with the CNMI Sex Offender Registry.
Assistant attorney general Shannon Foley stated that according to the factual basis of the plea agreement, on Nov. 13, 2015 on Saipan, Shoiter, while subject to the Sex Offender Registration requirements, stayed in his home knowing that his girlfriend’s granddaughter was staying there for the weekend.
Foley said at the time, Shoiter was subject to conditions of the CNMI Sex Offender Registry Act prohibiting him from residing in or having contact with a residence while minors are present.
The prosecutor said that on that same day, Shoiter engaged in sexual contact with a 7-year-old girl by touching her private part with his hand.
Assistant public defender Michael Sato appeared as counsel for Shoiter.
Shoiter was arrested last Nov. 15.
According to police detective Rhonda C. John, a police officer responded to a residence in Dandan on Nov. 15 after the Department of Public Safety received a call about a sexual abuse incident.
John said investigation showed that while the girl was sleeping sideways, Shoiter touched her private part.
The girl eventually told her father about what happened.
Shoiter was convicted in March 2004 for sexually abusing a minor. He served a prison term and registered as a convicted sex offender.
