{"id":228977,"date":"2016-06-01T06:00:19","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T20:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=228977"},"modified":"2016-06-01T06:00:19","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T20:00:19","slug":"execution-mondalas-1-year-prison-term-stayed-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/execution-mondalas-1-year-prison-term-stayed-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Execution of Mondala\u2019s 1-year prison term stayed for a week"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_228978\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-228978\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Kenneth-Govendo-mug.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-228978\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-228978 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Kenneth-Govendo-mug-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Kenneth-Govendo-mug\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-228978\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Govendo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo yesterday granted a week stay on the execution of a one-year prison term slapped against former Office of Aging director Rose DLG Mondala. <\/p>\n<p>Govendo said he needs to conduct legal research on the issue and wants more information whether the Department of Corrections has enough female staff who could watch the 71-year-old Mondala.<\/p>\n<p>Govendo ordered the government and Mondala\u2019s counsel, Loren Sutton, to come back on Tuesday, June 7, at 1:30pm for the continuation of the hearing on the defendant\u2019s motion to stay the execution of prison term pending her appeal of the sentencing order.<\/p>\n<p>The judge asked Sutton to tell Mondala that by Tuesday she should be prepared to start serving the prison term.<\/p>\n<p>Mondala did not appear at the hearing yesterday. She is supposed to start serving her prison sentence at DOC today, Wednesday, at 8am.<\/p>\n<p>Sutton argued Mondala\u2019s motion yesterday. He said his client is not a flight risk, has serious and life-threatening health problems, and is no threat to the public.<\/p>\n<p>Sutton recommended home confinement pending the outcome of their appeal.<\/p>\n<p>Sutton said Mondala has many ailments, including that she is susceptible to heart attack and is a carrier of tuberculosis.<\/p>\n<p>Sutton said the husband has been taking care of Mondala at their home.<\/p>\n<p>Assistant attorney general Matthew Baisley, counsel for the government, said the Commonwealth sticks to its position that the court should deny the motion as Mondala has not raised a substantial question of law or fact that then-Superior Court associate judge David A. Wiseman was in error that likely to result in reversal.<\/p>\n<p>Govendo said he will do legal research on federal sentencing guidelines that Sutton brought up.<\/p>\n<p>Citing Mondala\u2019s nine illnesses, Govendo asked Baisley to provide information to the court if DOC has sufficient staff who could monitor the defendant\u2019s health condition.<\/p>\n<p>Govendo expressed concern that Mondala may die in DOC if not given proper treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Baisley noted that Wiseman already took Mondala\u2019s illnesses as a factor in considering the sentencing.<\/p>\n<p>At sentencing, Wiseman pointed out that he reviewed the doctor\u2019s report stating the numerous illnesses Mondala has and the medication being administered.<\/p>\n<p>However, Wiseman said, medical condition although can and will mitigate the sentence, \u201cit will not cancel it out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last Feb. 25, Mondala pleaded guilty to one count of forgery and one count of use of public supplies, time, and personnel for campaign activities.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the plea deal, the government moved to dismiss the remaining 39 charges. The court granted the motion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo yesterday granted a week stay on the execution&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":228978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11798,446,9978,6216],"class_list":["post-228977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-citing-mondala","tag-doc","tag-loren-sutton","tag-matthew-baisley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228977","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=228977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}