In the ongoing jury trial of Bonifacio \u201cBoni\u201d Sagana, who faces a driver\u2019s license fraud charge in the U.S. District Court for the NMI, his lawyer made a motion for acquittal yesterday, but District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona reserved her decision on the motion and continued the trial.<\/p>\n
Defense counsel Richard Miller made the motion to acquit Sagana soon after the prosecutor, assistant U.S. Attorney Albert Flores Jr., rested his case yesterday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the NMI.<\/p>\n
Miller said the prosecution has not produced enough evidence for the jury to consider, both from the facts of the case and from the prosecutors\u2019 witnesses. He said that the jury could not reasonably find the elements of interstate commerce problem is satisfied\u2014that the production of the driver\u2019s license is in or affects interstate commerce.<\/p>\n
Manglona invoked Rule 29-B in reserving her decision on the motion.<\/p>\n
Sagana is on trial for and has pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiring with others to unlawfully produce an identification document\u2014a CNMI driver\u2019s license. The three elements in the case against Sagana are 1: conspiring to knowingly produce an identification document, 2: without lawful authority, and 3: that the production of that document was in or affected interstate commerce.<\/p>\n
In arguing that the case violates the precepts of interstate commerce, Flores argued that the license made for Bernadita Zata, the vehicle bought and used by Zata, and gasoline paid for by Zata are all manufactured outside of the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole point of manufacturing is to participate in an economy and participate in commerce. Things are manufactured for the purpose of commerce outside of the CNMI and brought here. It is a simple concept and the government has met its burden,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Miller said these arguments are not sufficient and that the issue is whether the license itself affected interstate commerce. \u201cThere\u2019s no testimony that there\u2019s an intention to travel, to cross interstate lines, to cross from Saipan to elsewhere, using this driver\u2019s license,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n
He said there is testimony that Zata was out of status in the first place, so she\u2019s not going to be able to travel anyway, but that \u201cshe had no intention whatsoever to travel on it. She wanted the driver\u2019s license because she wanted a driver\u2019s license within the CNMI\u2014not with any intention to go anywhere else,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we submit to the court that there is no sufficient evidence in front of the jury to find that this conspiracy\u2014if it did happen, if it did take place, was in, or affected interstate commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prosecutions\u2019 witnesses on Monday were Homeland Security Investigations special agent David West, HSI special agent Fredric Jonas, former deputy CNMI Marshal Eric Esteves, and Zata.<\/p>\n
Yesterday\u2019s witnesses were still Zata, then Diosdado Garcia, and Nora Ayuyu.<\/p>\n
Upon continuation of the trial, the defense presented two witnesses\u2014Joycie Estabillo and Adrian Ranin\u2014both of whom are friends with Sagana and were assisted by Sagana on occasion with their immigration documents.<\/p>\n
Closing arguments will be made this morning, with jury deliberation soon after.<\/p>\n
The first day of the trial started last July 6 with jury selection. There are 14 jurors in the trial.<\/p>\n
According to Saipan Tribune<\/em> archives, the U.S. District Court for the NMI issued an arrest warrant for Sagana following a grand jury indictment back on Jan. 31, 2022.<\/p>\n Sagana fled the CNMI before he could be arrested and was only taken into custody last May 16, 2022, in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n The charge against Sagana is punishable by up to a maximum sentence of 15 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the ongoing jury trial of Bonifacio \u201cBoni\u201d Sagana, who faces a driver\u2019s license fraud…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":395427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-396258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-saipan-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396258","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\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}