Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho has found too lenient a proposed plea agreement that recommends a sentence of a mere $50 fine and no prison term for former Rota Department of Community and Cultural Affairs resident director Josepha Barcinas Manglona.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis plea agreement is so lenient by analogy the court can only characterize the terms as having a bark of a Chihuahua but lacks the bite of a Rottweiler,\u201d said Camacho in rejecting the proposed plea deal entered by Manglona and white collar\/public corruption prosecutor Matthew Baisley.<\/p>\n
Camacho noted that Manglona is facing five charges and a possible consecutive sentence of 12 years and six months.<\/p>\n
The judge said the jury trial on Rota on Oct. 13, 2015, shall proceed.<\/p>\n
Camacho said the parties may submit another proposed plea agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cNotwithstanding the court\u2019s rejection of this plea agreement, the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law,\u201d Camacho added.<\/p>\n
The Office of the Attorney General charged the 53-year-old Manglona with conspiracy to commit theft by unlawful taking or disposition, theft by unlawful taking or disposition, two counts of misconduct in public office, and a count of removal of government property.<\/p>\n
Members of the CNMI Public Corruption and White Collar Crimes Task Force arrested then-DCCA resident director Manglona on Rota last April 16 on charges that stemmed from April 13, 2013, when, as then-director of Aging Center, she took a $1,000 pool table from the center and traded it with Leo Mereb in exchange for concrete hollow blocks to build her kitchen.<\/p>\n
Manglona and her lawyer, Timothy Bellas, signed a plea deal with the government. Under the proposed deal, Manglona would plead guilty to removal of government property.<\/p>\n
The deal recommends only that Manglona pay a $50 fine, no jail time, and that her record would be wiped of any criminal record.<\/p>\n
Camacho said plea deal fails to address any of the four goals of sentencing: rehabilitation, deterrence, retribution, and incapacitation.<\/p>\n
Considering that Manglona allegedly used her position as then-Rota director of Aging to enrich herself, a $50 fine has no rehabilitative effect, Camacho said.<\/p>\n
A $50 fine, the judge pointed out, also fails to have any deterrence or retribution effect.<\/p>\n
Camacho said imposing no jail time also has no rehabilitative, deterrence, retribution, or incapacitation effect.<\/p>\n
He said the proposed plea agreement is pursuant to 6 CMC 4113, which means that the defendant\u2019s criminal record will be wiped clean.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe jail sentence and other terms under the proposed plea agreement fail to conform to the standards of this court and the CNMI community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It is alleged that at the time of the offenses, Manglona was the director of Office of Aging, which provides services to the CNMI\u2019s elderly.<\/p>\n
The allegations are that Manglona used her position to enrich herself by trading a publicly owned property (pool table) in exchange for hollow blocks to build her house.<\/p>\n
The pool table was being used at the senior citizen center (Aging Center).<\/p>\n
Camacho said the Legislature has mandated and recognized that the elderly are a special group deserving respect and protection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis court is duty bound to follow that mandate,\u201d Camacho said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho has found too lenient a proposed plea agreement…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4722,26,6786,6216],"class_list":["post-209484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cmc","tag-cnmi","tag-leo-mereb","tag-matthew-baisley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}