The CNMI Supreme Court sided yesterday with Patrick Mendiola Calvo, saying he is entitled to a trial by jury, and remanded his case to the Superior Court where he will face two charges of sexual abuse of a child.<\/p>\n
In an opinion released by the Chief Justice Miguel S. Demapan, and Justices Pro Tempore Frances Tydingo-Gatewood and Michael J. Bordallo, the decision to grant the jury trial was based \u201csolely on the specific circumstances and facts specific to Calvo.\u201d <\/p>\n
Calvo was charged under 6 CMC Section 1311, and 6 CMC Section 5312, and according to the justices, he stood to be punished by two statutes governing identical conduct. <\/p>\n
Under Section 1311, Calvo stood to receive a \u201clesser\u201d punishment upon a conviction but he will be subjected to a mandatory period of incarceration. Under Section 5312, with the same conviction, Calvo stood to receive \u201cgreater\u201d punishment, but would not be subject to mandatory incarceration. <\/p>\n
The justices explained that in Calvo\u2019s case, \u201cthe government\u2019s ability to prosecute under 6 CMC Section 1311 predetermines a loss of liberty upon conviction, while the ultimate decision concerning any loss of liberty for a defendant charged under 6 CMC Section 5312 remains with the sentencing judge.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Nov. 21, 2000, the Attorney General\u2019s Office filed two criminal charges against Calvo, accusing him of sexual abuse of a child.<\/p>\n
Calvo had entered a plea of not guilty to both charges and demanded a jury trial for each count. He was denied a jury trial by the Superior Court, prompting him to appeal the matter with the High Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The CNMI Supreme Court sided yesterday with Patrick Mendiola Calvo, saying he is entitled to a trial by jury, and remanded his case to the Superior Court where he will face two charges of sexual abuse of a child.<\/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-82575","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\/82575","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=82575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}