{"id":371656,"date":"2022-07-01T06:03:11","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T20:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=371656"},"modified":"2022-07-01T06:03:11","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T20:03:11","slug":"defense-enters-palacios-couples-premium-class-tas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/defense-enters-palacios-couples-premium-class-tas\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense enters Palacios couple\u2019s premium class TAs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The defense in the criminal case filed by the Office of Attorney General against Gov. Ralph DLG Torres has submitted previous business class travel requests made by Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and itineraries to support claims that the OAG is selectively prosecuting Torres.<\/p>\n

During a hearing yesterday on Torres\u2019 criminal case, Victorino Torres, Torres\u2019 brother and one of his lawyers, raised a concern before Superior Court judge pro tem Alberto Tolentino regarding the prosecution raising issues about first lady Diann Torres traveling business class, claiming it is \u201cirrelevant\u201d to the motion to dismiss the OAG from prosecuting this case and the case as a whole due to selective prosecution.<\/p>\n

Torres reasoned that the defense has had a copy of a travel authorization for Lt. Gov. Palacios and his wife, Maria Wella Palacios, that proves they too have flown business class using government funds but has withheld from entering the document into evidence as he feels it is \u201cirrelevant\u201d to the motion at hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour honor, there\u2019s just one regarding the selective prosecution. We have travel authorization that [the lieutenant governor] and his wife also travelled business class. I honestly don\u2019t believe that\u2019s relevant for selective prosecution. [The prosecution] raised issues on the first lady traveling first class. In my opinion, I don\u2019t think its relevant in this case but if they continue to go down that route, we will submit this. I personally don\u2019t want to go down that route. I don\u2019t think its relevant,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In response to the defense\u2019 concerns, OAG chief solicitor Robert Glass just said \u201ctheir choices are their choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

This prompted the defense to enter the travel authorization of the Palacios couple dated January 2019 for the inauguration of Guam Gov. Lourdes Leon Guerrero and Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio.
\n\u201cWe will enter it into evidence then,\u201d said Torres.<\/p>\n

Tolentino, after admitting the document into evidence, informed the parties that he would issue an order on the matter.<\/p>\n

Back on June 7, Torres, through his lawyers, Viola Alepuyo and Matthew Holley, filed a motion seeking the dismissal of the criminal case against him and alleging that the Office of the Attorney General is selectively 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.
\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 stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The defense in the criminal case filed by the Office of Attorney General against Gov….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":371665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-371656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371656","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=371656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}