{"id":406602,"date":"2024-03-01T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=406602"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Kaipat-denied-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Kaipat-denied-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaipat denied release"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The CNMI Supreme Court has denied Kenneth Thomas Blas Kaipat\u2019s request for release pending appeal in a case where he had been found guilty of rape.<\/p>\n<p>In their ruling, Chief Justice Alexandro Castro, Justice John A. Manglona, and Justice Perry Inos found that there is no emergency and that Kaipat\u2019s motion alleges no imminent irreparable harm if he is not released while his appeal is pending.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe factors we must consider weigh heavily against granting release pending appeal. Kaipat has not established by clear and convincing evidence that he does not pose a danger to any other person or to the community. Because he cannot meet the first part of the first element of Supreme Court Rule 9, Kaipat does not meet his burden for release pending appeal and we do need to assess the remaining factors. The request for release pending appeal is denied,\u201d the justices said.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, a jury found Kaipat guilty of three counts of sexual assault in the first degree, two counts of sexual assault in the second degree, aggravated assault and battery, assault with a dangerous weapon, strangulation and burglary.<\/p>\n<p>Kaipat was sentenced to 30 years\u2019 imprisonment for three counts of sexual assault in the first degree, but 15 years suspended. Kaipat can apply for parole after serving eight years of his sentence. He was also given credit of 315 days for time served.<\/p>\n<p>After serving his sentence, Kaipat will be placed on 15 years of supervised release and must pay $41,000 in restitution. He will also register as a tier 1 sex offender.<\/p>\n<p>Kaipat, through the Public Defender\u2019s Office, submitted an emergency motion requesting his release pending appeal soon after he was found guilty.<\/p>\n<p> <figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/a05136e6e8f2947d4cdcaf5496d61798.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>Kenneth Thomas Blas Kaipat exits the Guma Hustisia courtroom with his lawyer after being found guilty of all nine charges filed against him, including five counts of sexual assault in the first and second degree.<\/p>\n<p>-KIMBERLY B. ESMORES<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/bd551bb7910050456e5604682f6308d2.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Castro<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CNMI Supreme Court has denied Kenneth Thomas Blas Kaipat\u2019s request for release pending appeal&#8230;<\/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-406602","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\/406602","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=406602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}