In a strong message condemning corruption in government, a Superior Court judge yesterday sentenced an immigration officer to three years and six months in prison over charges that he solicited sexual favor from an alien worker in exchange for facilitating her immigration and labor permits.<\/p>\n
What was troubling for associate judge Kenneth Govendo was that Santiago Cepeda got rehired as an immigration officer despite his conviction on similar charges sometime in 1995.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time to [stop] excuses\u2026that [corruption] is just part of the culture here in the CNMI,\u201d Govendo said. \u201cYou cannot use these jobs of public trust to earn extra money on the side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Govendo declared that Cepeda should serve his prison sentence without the possibility of parole, instructing the defendant to report to the Division of Corrections on Monday. He directed the Immigration Division and the Office of Personnel Management not to rehire Cepeda in any CNMI government position again.<\/p>\n
The judge also ordered that Cepeda be placed on 18 months of probation after serving the prison term and to render 80 hours of community service, besides slapping the officer with a monetary fine.<\/p>\n
Based on information obtained from the court, Cepeda earlier pleaded guilty to extortion and possession or removal of government property.<\/p>\n
The officer admitted that he solicited \u201cone or more things of value, including companionship and\/or sexual favors.\u201d He solicited sexual favor from a nonresident worker, a bar employee, sometime on December 2003 to January 2004, promising to help the woman obtain an official CNMI immigration and labor permit.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot act like gods to little people [over whom] you have control,\u201d Govendo said. \u201cThis time, you are going to learn your lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n
Govendo said Cepeda should not have been rehired as an immigration officer in the first place because his police clearance would reflect his prior conviction. Sometime in 1995, the court had convicted Cepeda on charges of misconduct in public office for soliciting money in exchange for facilitating an alien worker\u2019s entry permit.<\/p>\n
The judge also noted the letter from Immigration director Antonio Sablan, which claimed that Cepeda was an employee of good standing, except when he committed the crimes in relation to the convictions.<\/p>\n
Before the sentencing, special investigator David Hocking of the Attorney General\u2019s Office testified in court that the woman refused to testify for the sentencing hearing because she was afraid of possible retaliation through her immigration status in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
Cepeda\u2019s wife, Eileen, also testified that her husband has been a good family man, pleading with the court to impose a low sentence on the defendant.<\/p>\n
Govendo said that Eileen has no responsibility over her husband\u2019s crimes, describing the immigration officer as a \u201ccrook\u201d at work.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t be afraid and report those individuals. Go to the AGO and you will get support,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a strong message condemning corruption in government, a Superior Court judge yesterday sentenced an immigration officer to three years and six months in prison over charges that he solicited sexual favor from an alien worker in exchange for facilitating her immigration and labor permits.<\/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-88953","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\/88953","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=88953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}