Tinian ‘ice’ trafficking suspect wants to travel to Saipan for uncle’s funeral

The Office of the Attorney General is objecting to a request of a defendant in “ice” trafficking case to travel from Tinian to Saipan to attend the funeral of his uncle.

It was not clear whether defendant Kurt John B. King’s request was granted or denied by the Superior Court as the OAG filed the opposition on Friday. The funeral was set for Saturday, July 30, at San Antonio Church.

In a letter to associate judge David A. Wiseman filed in court on Thursday, July 28, King asked the court to authorize him to attend his uncle’s funeral.

King said during his stay on Saipan, he will be staying at a residence of his mother-in-law.

He said he would return yesterday, Sunday, back to Tinian with his family.

Assistant attorney general Shelli Neal said the government is opposing the travel request as the deceased person is not an immediate relative of the defendant.

“Defendant’s current bail conditions prohibit him from leaving the island of Tinian. The Commonwealth opposes any modification to the defendant’s current bail conditions,” Neal said in the government’s opposition.

The OAG earlier opposed King’s motion to transfer the trial venue of his case to Saipan instead of Tinian, citing that it is impossible to get the defendant convicted due to his ties with a powerful family on the island.

But Wiseman denied the government’s motion. He ruled that although he acknowledges that King’s ties to the Tinian community might appear to make it impossible for the government to have a fair trial in Tinian, he is reluctant to transfer the trial venue without any supporting facts or declarations to support such a contention.

“In addition, the fact that defendant King is widely known and extremely involved in the political infrastructure on Tinian and is a relative of a highly respected family on the island is not enough to establish good cause when moving to transfer venue,” Wiseman stated in the order.

The Office of the Attorney General charged King and Byron Dela Cruz with possession of a controlled substance and trafficking of a controlled substance. In addition, King is charged with conspiracy to traffic a controlled substance.

The charges stemmed from their arrest in April 2010 when members of the CNMI’s joint Drug Enforcement Task Force raided the houses of the defendants on Tinian after the authorities’ “cooperating source” allegedly managed to purchase $100 worth of “ice” from King and Dela Cruz.

King was just tried on Tinian and acquitted in a criminal case less than six months prior to this illegal drug case.