Torres: Lawsuit vs NMC is about public records, not Angello’s case

Rep. Stanley T. Torres has urged Northern Marianas College president Carmen Fernandez and former acting NMI Board of Regents chair Eloise Furey to leave Jack Angello out of his lawsuit against them.

Torres, through lawyer Antonette R. Villagomez, asked Fernandez and Furey to battle Angello in his own case against NMC.

The defendants’ continued insistence on including references to Angello in this case is unnecessary and tiresome, said the lawmaker in his opposition to Fernandez’s and Furey’s motion for reconsideration.

“This is not a case involving Jack Angello and NMC,” Torres insisted.

Villagomez said Angello may have aided Torres with the case when the lawmaker appeared in court without a lawyer but Torres has not employed Angello since the latter’s retirement in 2007 and denied Angello’s further involvement in any aspect of the case.

Villagomez said Torres is pursuing the case because he believes the college violated the Open Government Act when it failed to comply with his request to inspect public records at NMC.

Torres reiterated his reasons for requesting the documents in his June 12, 2007, OGA request to NMC.

“As a member of the House of Representatives, plaintiff received several reports and complaints of improper and questionable financial activities at NMC,” Villagomez said.

Pursuant to such reports, Villagomez said, Torres was investigating the matter by requesting the information from NMC.

Investigating reports of improper financial activities at NMC is a “reasonable” and “legitimate” justification for Torres’ request of public records from the college, she said.

Villagomez said there is no clear error that justifies reconsideration because the court may grant Torres’ motion for summary judgment.

Villagomez said the court correctly determined that there is no dispute regarding the material facts of the case that “the sticking point is who should bear the costs of redacting any information” in this case.

It appears, Villagomez said, the defendants do not want to comply with Torres’ request for information and are making it extremely difficult for the lawmaker to obtain the information, which, pursuant to the OGA, is “public record.”

Torres sued Fernandez, Furey, former assistant attorney General Linda Waugh and NMI private counsel F. Matthew Smith for allegedly not producing the records he requested.

In a recent decision, Superior Court Associate Judge David Wiseman ordered Fernandez and Furey to produce all public records requested by the lawmaker.

In the same ruling, Wiseman denied a motion to dismiss the allegations against Fernandez and Furey.

Wiseman, however, granted a motion to dismiss the allegations against Waugh and Smith.

The judge noted that, according to the OGA, all public records shall be available for inspection, “unless inspection of such records is in violation of any Commonwealth or federal law.”

Fernandez and Furey asked Wiseman to reconsider his decision.

Hernandez and Furey, through counsel F. Matthew Smith, asserted that Wiseman’s granting of summary judgment in favor of Torres contains several errors that warrant reconsideration and reversal.

“NMC also hopes the court will recognize the substantial and manifest injustice that has and will result if the current decision is allowed to stand,” said Smith in the motion for reconsideration.