Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo has denied former Corrections officer Ray Anthony Maratita Camacho\u2019s motion to be acquitted of assaulting an inmate inside the Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n
In an order on Wednesday, Govendo said the evidence shows that Camacho\u2019s actions \u201cwere unlawful beyond a reasonable doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said regulation clearly bars the use of chokeholds yet there was ample testimony that Camacho used a chokehold on Ryan Cavalear.<\/p>\n
Govendo found credible the testimony of Corrections officer Jesse Taitano, who characterized Camacho\u2019s hold as a guillotine lock, a type of sleeper hold prohibited by Correction policies and procedures.<\/p>\n
Further, Govendo said, police officer Paul Ichihara testified seeing marks on Cavalear\u2019s neck and noticed that Cavalear was in considerable pain.<\/p>\n
Govendo said Taitano and Ichihara\u2019s testimonies are consistent with the court\u2019s finding that Camacho used a prohibited chokehold on Cavalear and that such action is \u201cunlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Therefore, the judge said, he finds that the term \u201cunlawful\u201d as applied to the facts of this case is not vague.<\/p>\n
Following an eight-day bench trial, last April 18 Govendo found the 37-year-old Camacho guilty of assault and battery over the beating of Cavalear at Corrections on April 1, 2016.<\/p>\n
Sentencing will be on June 6, 2017, at 1:30pm.<\/p>\n
During the trial, Camacho, through counsel Colin Thompson, twice moved for a motion for judgment of acquittal, once after the government rested and another at the close of all evidence.<\/p>\n
The latter motion for judgment of acquittal additionally argued that the assault and battery statute is unconstitutionally vague as applied to the facts of the case.<\/p>\n
Govendo denied both motions.<\/p>\n
Camacho, through counsel, urged the court once more to determine its motion for judgment of acquittal.<\/p>\n
In denying the defendant\u2019s renewed motion, Govendo said a motion for judgment of acquittal pursuant to Rule 29 is inapplicable in bench trials.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Govendo considered the merits of Camacho\u2019s motion, particularly whether the term \u201cunlawful\u201d in the assault and battery statute is unconstitutionally vague.<\/p>\n
As the term \u201cunlawful\u201d relates to those acts that are contrary to regulations, Camacho argued that Correction\u2019s policies and regulations do not clearly indicate whether chokeholds are prohibited as an appropriate use of force technique.<\/p>\n
Govendo finds in the contrary.<\/p>\n
Govendo said Correction\u2019s polices and regulations clearly establish that chokeholds are prohibited.<\/p>\n
The judge noted that Correction\u2019s policies and regulations state that \u201cchokeholds, blows to the head, face and neck are prohibited.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo has denied former Corrections officer Ray Anthony Maratita…<\/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":[17067,17068,17069,12228],"class_list":["post-253733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-former-correction","tag-jesse-taitano","tag-paul-ichihara","tag-ryan-cavalear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253733","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=253733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}