Federal District court judge Alex Munson acquitted yesterday a Chinese national who was allegedly involved in a human smuggling attempt to Guam last month.<\/p>\n
Munson said the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, which was prosecuting the case, failed to present evidence that would prove the allegation against Cheng Wen Shun beyond reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe court can\u2019t speculate on these things. There is no evidence that there was discussion [on the attempt to enter Guam], no testimony that they paid money. This defendant denied any knowledge of attempting to enter the U.S. That\u2019s the government\u2019s burden to prove otherwise\u2026 I find the defendant not guilty of this case,\u201d Munson said.<\/p>\n
He said, though, that the accused must remain in the custody of CNMI immigration authorities for proper legal action. He noted that Cheng has no legal status to continue to stay in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
During his testimony, Cheng said that he has been living in the CNMI since 1992 without a regular work. <\/p>\n
\u201c I work if there\u2019s work. If there\u2019s no work, I have fun. I work for anybody. I go wherever there\u2019s work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His last work prior to his arrest last month, he said, was on Tinian. When asked who was his last employer, he said, \u201cI can\u2019t remember the name.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Tinian resident Eddie Fleming as boat captain, Cheng, together with three other Chinese nationals\u2014including two women\u2014left Tinian on April 5, 2004.<\/p>\n
Cheng said it was a fishing trip but prosecutors said that it was a planned trip to bring them to Guam. They were arrested on Rota where they had to stop by twice due to the rough seas and lack of fuel.<\/p>\n
The judge\u2019s decision favors the petition filed by the defendant\u2019s lawyer, former Superior Court judge Timothy Bellas.<\/p>\n
Bellas said during yesterday\u2019s court hearing that the prosecution\u2019s assertions \u201care all speculations.\u201d<\/p>\n
He reiterated the defendant\u2019s testimony that he was unaware of any discussions about going to Guam, insisting that he only wanted \u201cto have fun\u201d fishing.<\/p>\n
Besides, Bellas said Cheng did not know the other passengers except one whom he said was his acquaintance.<\/p>\n
For his part, prosecutor Jamie Bowers said common sense would dictate that there was a conspiracy to illegally enter Guam, citing alleged admissions by other defendants that they paid money for the trip.<\/p>\n
He said there was no need prove that the defendants made it to Guam, \u201cbut the attempt was made.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe attempt was complete when they left Tinian,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He pointed out that one of Cheng\u2019s co-accused said she knew she was going to Guam, and had contributed money for the boat\u2019s fuel.<\/p>\n
Another local, he said, also testified that he knew the group was going to Guam.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evidence is very strong that they were headed to Guam,\u201d Bowers said. \u201cIt was not a fishing trip. It was a trip to smuggle people to Guam.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meantime, two of Cheng\u2019s co-accused in the case reportedly entered a guilty plea agreement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Federal District court judge Alex Munson acquitted yesterday a Chinese national who was allegedly involved in a human smuggling attempt to Guam last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81145","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\/81145","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=81145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}