Judge pro tempore Alberto E. Tolentino\u2019s decision not to try Gov. Torres on charges of \u201cmisconduct in public office, theft, and contempt\u201d until after the 2022 election forces the CNMI electorate to vote for one of the three candidates without confirming the governor\u2019s guilt or innocence. It also poses some interesting questions for students of Marianas history and politics.<\/p>\n
The only similar event in Marianas political history was the indictment of Guam Gov. Ricardo J. Bordallo, Democrat, by U.S. Attorney K. William O\u2019Connor only three days before the 1986 Democratic Party primary election.<\/p>\n
Bordallo defeated Speaker of the Guam Legislature Carl T. C. Gutierrez, Democrat, in the primary, but lost to Joseph Flores Ada, Republican, in the general election, even with Gutierrez\u2019s full support. The Guam electorate had clearly decided that Bordallo was guilty, even without a trial.<\/p>\n
The situation today in the CNMI is different. Gov. Torres, Republican, is tied into a three-way race with no primary election. With little chance of any one of the three candidates for governor getting over 50% of the votes, the two top vote-getters will face a run-off election two weeks later. Should Torres somehow win the runoff, the question becomes: Will Tolentino conduct the trial before or after the inauguration?<\/p>\n
If the trial is held before the inauguration and Torres is found guilty, will there be another election?<\/p>\n
If, on the other hand, Torres loses either the general election or the runoff, and the trial is held after the inauguration of either Palacios or Sablan and Torres is found not guilty, would Torres be able to demand a new election?<\/p>\n
As to the trial of Ricky Bordallo, he finally faced the judge on Feb. 13, 1987. He was found guilty by a jury of his peers on 10 of 17 counts of extortion, bribery or gratuity, conspiracy, and witness tampering. Three hours before he was scheduled to be transferred\u00a0to a minimum-security prison\u00a0in\u00a0Boron, California\u00a0on\u00a0Jan. 31, 1990, Bordallo committed suicide in\u00a0Hag\u00e5t\u00f1a by wrapping himself in a\u00a0Guam flag, chaining himself to statue of\u00a0Chief Kepuha, and shooting himself in the head with an illegal\u00a0.38 caliber\u00a0pistol.<\/p>\n
The only similar case in the Northern Mariana Islands was the impeachment of former governor Benigno Repeki Fitial, founder of the CNMI Covenant Party, by the CNMI House of Representatives on Feb. 11, 2013. He was scheduled to face trial before the CNMI Senate to determine if he should be removed from office, but resigned on Feb. 20, 2013. On May 14, 2015, Fitial pleaded guilty before Judge David A. Wiseman on charges of misconduct in public office and conspiracy to commit theft of services. On Oct. 12, Wiseman ordered Fitial to serve one year in prison. Then-governor Eloy Inos, who had been Fitial\u2019s lieutenant governor, commuted Fitial\u2019s sentence.<\/p>\n
It is unfortunate that Judge Tolentino did not push forward with the trial of Gov. Torres, thus allowing the CNMI electorate to cast more informed votes and enjoy the 2023 inauguration without a major controversy. <\/p>\n
Don Farrell<\/strong> Judge pro tempore Alberto E. Tolentino\u2019s decision not to try Gov. Torres on charges of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":331239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[14539],"class_list":["post-377776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor","tag-marpo-heights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377776","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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMarpo Heights, Tinian<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"