{"id":373252,"date":"2022-07-29T06:03:41","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T20:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=373252"},"modified":"2022-07-29T06:03:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-28T20:03:41","slug":"mafnas-brings-suit-to-fed-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mafnas-brings-suit-to-fed-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Mafnas brings suit to fed court"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Jose Mafnas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Former Division of Customs and Biosecurity director Jose Mafnas has taken his suit against the Department of Finance and its head, David Atalig, to federal court and has also included Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 chief of staff as a defendant.<\/p>\n

After previously dropping his lawsuit against DOF and Atalig in in Superior Court, Mafnas has opted to refile his suit with the U.S. District Court for the NMI and added Torres\u2019 chief of staff, William Castro, as a defendant.<\/p>\n

In addition to the complaint, Mafnas, through his counsel, Charity Hodson, has also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prohibiting the defendants from reassigning him or reverting the reassignment while the lawsuit is pending.<\/p>\n

For the most part, the complaint remains the same, this time with an additional defendant.<\/p>\n

According to the verified complaint, Mafnas is accusing Atalig and Castro of violating his rights and due process of law, specifically his right to freedom of speech and freedom of association.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefendant Secretary of Finance and defendant Castro discriminated and retaliated against plaintiff for exercising his constitutional right to freedom of association with a different political gubernatorial ticket than the incumbent governor. Defendant Secretary of Finance engaged in patronage by issuing his decision to \u2018reassig\u2019 plaintiff, which was an adverse employment action because of plaintiff\u2019s political association. Defendant Secretary of Finance\u2019s and defendant Castro\u2019s actions were motivated by evil motive or intent, or involved reckless or callous indifference to the rights of plaintiff,\u201d Hodson argued.<\/p>\n

Hodson also alleged that Castro and Atalig caused and\/or threatened to demote or change Mafnas\u2019 civil service classification, with intent to discourage or encourage him to support a candidate for public office and\/or a political party.<\/p>\n

Mafnas\u2019 lawyer explained her client is an open supporter of the independent Palacios-Apatang gubernatorial ticket, which is running against Torres.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the recent months leading up to his effective termination, plaintiff has been publicly supporting the incumbent governor\u2019s gubernatorial opponent outside of the work place by appearing at events, fundraisers, and roadside wavings,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

However, Mafnas\u2019 constitutional right to vote freely and to associate as he sees fit has also been under fire for months since his public support of the governor\u2019s opponent, Hodson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn or about May 22, 2022, plaintiff\u2019s niece, sent a message to\u2026Castro regarding statements made by Castro about terminating Mafnas\u2019 employment. When plaintiff engaged the incumbent governor\u2019s chief of staff, on or about May 22\u2026Castro replied: \u2018Director, [I\u2019ve] been a winner and a loser. But I\u2019ve never lost a civil service battle.\u2019 The same day, the plaintiff was given an adverse order by Secretary of Finance Atalig appointing [an] Officer 1 as acting director, bypassing several experienced management officers in Customs. The now-acting director is a close relative of the incumbent governor\u2019s running mate,\u201d Hodson said.<\/p>\n

The court has yet to make a ruling or set a hearing date on the motions filed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Division of Customs and Biosecurity director Jose Mafnas has taken his suit against the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":373048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-373252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373252","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=373252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}