{"id":383761,"date":"2023-01-20T06:03:38","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T20:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=383761"},"modified":"2023-01-20T06:03:38","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T20:03:38","slug":"torres-feb-trial-moved-to-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/torres-feb-trial-moved-to-june\/","title":{"rendered":"Torres\u2019 Feb. trial moved to June"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Ralph DLG Torres<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The previously scheduled Feb. 13 jury trial of former governor Ralph DLG Torres in the criminal case filed against him in the Superior Court has been vacated due to unforeseen circumstances.<\/p>\n

According to an order issued by Superior Court judge pro tem Alberto Tolentino yesterday, he has granted the request made by the defense to continue Torres\u2019 trial to a later date. Tolentino also clarified that he isn\u2019t ruling on any of the arguments made by the parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court has read both defendant\u2019s and the Commonwealth\u2019s submissions. However, due to unforeseen circumstances unrelated to this matter, the court is unable to proceed with the current Feb. 13 trial date. Therefore the court shall grant defendant\u2019s motion pursuant to its authority to control its own calendar, and does so without substantively ruling on the issues mentioned in the party\u2019s briefs. For the following reason, defendant\u2019s motion for continuance of trial is granted,\u201d said Tolentino.<\/p>\n

He did not specify these \u201cunforeseen circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to the continuance, the Feb. 13 jury trial date previously set by the court has been vacated and Torres\u2019 trial is now set for June 5, at 9am.<\/p>\n

According to Saipan Tribune archives,\u00a0Torres\u2019 lawyer, Victorino Torres, previously asked the court to push the trial further to sometime in August to accommodate his schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy client has waived his right to a speedy trial. There is no reason to fast-track these proceedings,\u201d said Victorino Torres, who is the governor\u2019s brother.<\/p>\n

However, the Office of the Attorney General, which is prosecuting the former governor, opposed another continuance, saying the jury trial has already been pushed back several times now.<\/p>\n

In an eight-page motion opposing the defense\u2019s request for another continuance, OAG chief solicitor Robert Glass Jr. essentially said that Torres has four lawyers to represent him and the conflict of schedule of one is not enough reason for a continuance.<\/p>\n

Glass argued that the defendant provides no reason why one of his other three lawyers cannot be present or represent him at the February trial.<\/p>\n

Back in April 2022, the OAG filed a criminal case against Torres, alleging 12 counts of misconduct in public office and one count of theft relating to the issuance of airline tickets for business class, first class, or other premium class travel for himself and\/or Diann T. Torres, his wife.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The previously scheduled Feb. 13 jury trial of former governor Ralph DLG Torres in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":383764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383761","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\/383761","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=383761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}