{"id":305183,"date":"2019-08-02T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T20:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=305183"},"modified":"2019-08-02T06:00:09","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T20:00:09","slug":"ex-corrections-chief-says-manila-injuries-caused-by-his-physicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/ex-corrections-chief-says-manila-injuries-caused-by-his-physicians\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Corrections chief says Manila injuries caused by his physicians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ex-Corrections commissioner Robert Guerrero insists that whatever Reynaldo A. Manila\u2019s injuries are, they were actually caused by the malpractice of his treating professionals.<\/p>\n

In Guerrero\u2019s response to Manila\u2019s lawsuit, he insists, through the Office of the Attorney General, that he did not violate any of Manila\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

Civil Division chief Christopher M. Timmons also pointed out that Guerrero has qualified immunity from suit.<\/p>\n

Timmons said that Manila\u2019s claims are barred for failing to join indispensable parties.<\/p>\n

At the same time, he said that Manila\u2019s claims are based on a notion that his eye surgery was delayed by not taking him to the Philippines for treatment.<\/p>\n

Yet Timmons pointed out that retinal specialists are not present in the CNMI and that travel with a prisoner requires significant inter-governmental coordination and does not happen at the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n

Timmons said Guerrero and his co-defendants\u2019 actions were reasonable, given the time necessary to address the international transportation of a patient prisoner.<\/p>\n

Timmons said Guerrero could not send Manila to the Philippines as the Philippine government does not allow CNMI officials to transport prisoners to or through that country. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was necessary to arrange treatment in Guam and\u2026those arrangements were expeditiously made by others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Manila, an inmate at the DOC, is suing Guerrero and two other officials for going blind in his left eye.<\/p>\n

Recently, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona denied a motion to dismiss Manila\u2019s lawsuit. <\/p>\n

\"\"
Manglona<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Manglona determined that, on the face of Manila\u2019s amended complaint, his claim against Guerrero and DOC official Jose K. Pangelinan is not barred by the statute of limitations.<\/p>\n

Manglona said Guerrero and Pangelinan are free to re-raise their statute of limitations defense in a motion for summary judgment if they discover evidence to support it consistent with the law of the case as she announced in her order.<\/p>\n

The judge also found that Manila\u2019s complaint alleges facts sufficient to state and 8th Amendment claim against DOC official Georgia M. Cabrera for deliberate indifference to serious medical needs.<\/p>\n

Guerrero, Pangelinan, and Cabrera have been ordered to respond to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Guerrero, who is currently the Department of Public Safety commissioner, was the DOC commissioner when Manila was diagnosed with retinal detachment in the left eye.<\/p>\n

Manila sued Guerrero, Cabrera, and Pangelinan in their personal capacity for alleged violations of his 8th Amendment right to adequate medical care.<\/p>\n

Cabrera used to serve as DOC commissioner, while Pangelinan served as acting DOC commissioner when Guerrero was transferred to DPS. Cabrera and Pangelinan are still DOC officials.<\/p>\n

Manila has no lawyer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ex-Corrections commissioner Robert Guerrero insists that whatever Reynaldo A. Manila\u2019s injuries are, they were actually…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":305185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305183","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=305183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}