{"id":395149,"date":"2023-07-04T06:06:25","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T20:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=395149"},"modified":"2023-07-04T06:06:25","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T20:06:25","slug":"man-accused-of-rape-moves-to-disqualify-all-of-cnmis-judges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/man-accused-of-rape-moves-to-disqualify-all-of-cnmis-judges\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of rape moves to disqualify all of CNMI\u2019s judges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe Superior Court law clerk who is being accused of raping a co-worker has filed a motion to disqualify all sitting Superior Court judges from presiding over his case.<\/p>\n

William Abraczinskas, who is the law clerk of Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth Govendo and is the defendant in a rape case, filed last week a motion to disqualify all Superior Court judges from presiding over his case.<\/p>\n

Chief Public Defender Doug Hartig filed the motion on behalf of Abraczinskas.<\/p>\n

According to the motion, the defense wants a special judge to be appointed to hear this case instead.
\n\u201cDefendant believes that a person with knowledge of all facts surrounding this motion for recusal would question the impartiality of the Superior Court judges and so moves a special judge be appointed to hear this case,\u201d said Hartig.<\/p>\n

However, during a motion hearing yesterday, Superior Court Associate judge Joseph Camacho denied the motion to disqualify.<\/p>\n

Govendo and Superior Court Presiding Judge Roberto Naraja have already recused themselves from hearing the case.<\/p>\n

Hartig explained in the motion to disqualify that the recusal of all judges is required because their impartiality may be questioned for two reasons: one, the alleged victim is a long-time employee of the Superior Court and the court\u2019s judges have had interactions with her over the years; and two, the defendant is an employee of the Superior Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cA judge must not only be neutral; he must also appear neutral. However, in this case, sitting Superior Court judges\u2019 appearance of neutrality may be compromised given the alleged victim\u2019s long history of working within the Judiciary,\u201d Hartig said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Abraczinskas, during his arraignment which was held following the motion hearing, pleaded not guilty to all the charges filed against him.<\/p>\n

Abraczinkas, 34, is accused of sexually assaulting a co-worker last April 8 and is facing charges of sexual assault in the first degree, assault and battery, and disturbing the peace,
\nThe defendant\u2019s jury trial is set for Oct. 16, at 9am while his pre-trial conference is set for August 30.<\/p>\n

According to court documents, the victim went to the Department of Public Safety\u2019s headquarters last May 26 to make a walk-in complaint against Abraczinkas, whom she accused of sexually assaulting her at his apartment. She told investigators that she and Abraczinkas had just finished swimming at a nearby beach when the incident happened. The victim claims she managed to leave when Abraczinkas fell asleep after sexually assaulting her.<\/p>\n

The victim told police that she didn\u2019t tell anyone about the incident because she didn\u2019t want to disrupt Govendo\u2019s court operations and draw negative attention to the court, but then decided to file her complaint after learning that Abraczinkas had filed a sexual harassment complaint against her with the Judiciary\u2019s Human Resources office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Superior Court law clerk who is being accused of raping a co-worker has filed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":395156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-395149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395149","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=395149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}