{"id":406325,"date":"2024-03-25T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=406325"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Contempt-charge-filed-vs-Villanueva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Contempt-charge-filed-vs-Villanueva\/","title":{"rendered":"Contempt charge filed vs. Villanueva"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Office of the Attorney General has officially filed a contempt charge against Shayne Blanco Villanueva in Superior Court for refusing to answer questions during a legislative investigation on the previous administration\u2019s Building Optimism, Opportunity, and Stability Together grant program.<\/p>\n

Villanueva was booked Friday at the Department of Corrections after he self-surrendered to police and was able to immediately post bail.<\/p>\n

After posting a $1000 bail, pursuant to an arrest warrant dated March 11, Villanueva was spotted leaving DOC with his lawyer, Keith Chambers.<\/p>\n

Saipan Tribune<\/em> learned that the Superior Court issued an arrest warrant for Villanueva back on March 11 pursuant to one count of contempt charge, but he was off island at the time.<\/p>\n

Upon learning of the warrant and charge filed against him, Villanueva agreed to turn himself in to police upon his return.<\/p>\n

According to the declaration of probable cause in support of the issuance of an arrest warrant on March 8, House Speaker Edmund Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) transmitted a signed certification statement of contempt for Villanueva to Attorney General Edward Manibusan.<\/p>\n

On the same day, Manibusan referred the case to the White-Collar Crimes Task Force composed of the Office of the Public Auditor, the OAG, and the Department of Public Safety.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In this screengrab taken from a YouTube video, Shayne Villanueva takes his oath before the House of Representatives Committee on Federal Assistance and Disaster-related Funding that is investigating the previous administration\u2019s grant program, in the House chamber yesterday morning. Behind Villanueva is his counsel, Keith Chambers. The committee found Villanueva in contempt for invoking his Fifth Amendment right and refusing to answer any questions from the committee.<\/p>\n

-FERDIE DE LA TORRE
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The declaration alleged that on March 5, during the House of Representatives\u2019 Special Committee on Federal Assistance and Disaster-Related Funding investigatory meeting pursuant to the subpoena issued to Roil Soil Marketing\u2019s Villanueva, Villanueva failed to answer questions posed by the Rep. Blas Jonathan \u201cBJ\u201d Attao (Ind-Saipan).<\/p>\n

After refusing to answer questions, committee vice chair Rep. Edwin K. Propst (D-Saipan) and chair Rep. Ralph N. Yumul (Ind-Saipan) advised Villanueva that his failure to respond to the questions would subject him to contempt of the Legislature and prosecution by the attorney general.<\/p>\n

Specifically, in response to the first question from Attao, which was, \u201cCan you please tell us a little bit about your postsecondary educational background?\u201d Villanueva reportedly replied with the phrase, \u201con the advice of my counsel, I respectfully invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege, therefore I respectfully decline to answer your question at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The probable cause document states that \u201cVillanueva used that phrase eight times, refusing to answer the question about postsecondary education asking for confirmation that Villanueva would be refusing to answer any of the questions.<\/p>\n

After being admonished, he was again asked, \u201cDo you have a degree or any certification in marketing or advertising?\u201d Villanueva allegedly refused to answer.<\/p>\n

Attao again asked, \u201cPlease share with us your professional credentials,\u201d but Villanueva refused to answer.<\/p>\n

Attao then asked, \u201cWhat is Roil Soil and where is it physically located?\u201d Villanueva also refused to testify.<\/p>\n

Propst asked, \u201cAre you unwilling to answer any of our questions that we are going to ask you from this point forward?\u201d to which Villanueva replied, \u201cI respectfully invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege, therefore I respectfully decline to answer your question.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Roil Soil\u2019s Shayne Villanueva is seen in this photo leaving the Department of Corrections\u2019 booking area after he self-surrendered last Friday pursuant to a contempt charge filed against him.<\/p>\n

-KIMBERLY B. ESMORES
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Office of the Attorney General has officially filed a contempt charge against Shayne Blanco…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406325","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}