{"id":369985,"date":"2022-06-08T06:01:20","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T20:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=369985"},"modified":"2022-06-08T06:01:20","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T20:01:20","slug":"torres-seeks-to-junk-oag-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/torres-seeks-to-junk-oag-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Torres seeks to junk OAG case"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ralph DLG Torres<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The defense in the criminal case against Gov. Ralph DLG Torres has filed a motion to dismiss the case in its entirety, claiming selective and vindictive prosecution.<\/p>\n

Torres, through his lawyers, Viola Alepuyo and Matthew Holley, filed a motion with Superior Court judge pro tem Alberto Tolentino yesterday, seeking the dismissal of the criminal case against him and alleging that the Office of the Attorney General is selectively and vindictively prosecuting him.<\/p>\n

According to the motion for dismissal, Torres\u2019 lawyers claim that the prosecution is being selective because the OAG has chosen not to prosecute similarly situated individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the civil statute on travel, Public Law 15-86, was enacted in September 2007, there has been no Commonwealth elected official, employee, or board member ever charged civilly or criminally for violating this provision. The OAG did not charge the numerous government officials, [including Torres\u2019] opponent Lt. Gov. Arnold Palacios, AG Ed Manibusan, former attorney general J.P. San Nicolas, to name a few, who also flew on premium class travel. The OAG has chosen not to pursue any claims against a single other similarly situated government official relating to premium class travel. There has been preferential treatment between Gov. Torres and other officials,\u201d the defense stated.<\/p>\n

In addition, Torres\u2019 lawyers argue that the information filed against Torres in itself provides evidence of selective prosecution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe selective nature of Gov. Torres\u2019 prosecution is particularly evident in that he is charged with \u2018causing premium class travel.\u2019 Gov. Torres did not cause his premium class travel. His TAs were submitted, and approved by the secretary of Finance and the lieutenant governor and purchased by a travel agent. By the OAG\u2019s theory, any one of the individuals who participated in \u2018causing\u2019 premium class travel is in violation of 1 CMC 7407(f). Yet Gov. Torres stands alone in this prosecution while numerous individuals go uncharged,\u201d the motion states.<\/p>\n

Torres\u2019 lawyers also claim that Torres was charged not because of any involvement in criminal conduct, but rather because of the political climate and the OAG\u2019s desire to punish him for criticizing some members of the House of Representatives\u2019 pursuit of the premium class travel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe information constitutes selective prosecution and must be dismissed,\u201d the motion said.<\/p>\n

The lawyers also argued that the information filed against Torres was ultimately vindictively designed to prevent the defendant from running in the upcoming election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is vindictively designed to prevent the governor from running [for] office in this election and undermine his free speech. The OAG significantly departed from its manual and travel policy, the OAG\u2019s advice to the Travel Committee, and its legal opinion to Gov. Torres relating to the legislative subpoena. The timing of the information, by itself, can amount to vindictive prosecution,\u201d the lawyers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AG has engaged in dilatory tactics, gamesmanship, and has been politically influenced in his prosecutorial powers\u2014all amounting to vindictive prosecution. Accordingly, this case must be dismissed,\u201d the lawyers added.<\/p>\n

After making their arguments, Torres\u2019 lawyers also proposed an alternative to dismissal\u2014for the court to grant his request for discovery into the decision to charge him.<\/p>\n

The discovery that Torres is requesting includes reasons for the OAG\u2019s prosecutorial decisions, including whether it initially decided not to prosecute, and the reasons for deciding to prosecute this case over four years after the initial premium class travel in 2018; any communication between any member of the OAG, and any member of the House of Representatives relating to the investigation that resulted in the criminal charges against him; and names of other individuals investigated for premium class travel; among other things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The defense in the criminal case against Gov. Ralph DLG Torres has filed a motion…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":370002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-369985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-oag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369985","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}