Pretrial release of visa fraud suspect revoked

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has revoked the pretrial release of Evengelyn E.C. Jones, who has a pending criminal case and failed to appear at a hearing and for drug testing.

Manglona found that the series of failures to appear—for drug testing, for substance abuse treatment, and for a court hearing—show that no combination of conditions can assure Jones’ appearance.

In an order on Friday, Manglona also determined that the court can’t rely on Jones to abide by any conditions set.

Jones was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal.

Manglona noted that the court summons being left with a resident at Jones’ last known address is enough to establish probable cause that she knew she had been summoned to appear in court on Jan. 14, 2014.

Manglona found clear and convincing evidence that Jones violated two special conditions of release as alleged in the U.S. Probation Office’s petition for revocation and as admitted by Jones.

Moreover, the judge said, it appears that Jones may have violated another standard condition of pretrial release: to advise the court or her supervising officer in writing before changing her residence.

Last Jan. 30, U.S. District Court for the NMI Magistrate Judge Heather L. Kennedy remanded Jones to the custody of the U.S. Marshal pending a pretrial release violation hearing.

Kennedy said there is a serious risk that Jones will not appear in court and that no reasonable condition or combination of conditions of release will assure that she will not flee.

U.S. Deputy Marshal Don Hall served Jones with the arrest warrant Manglona issued on Jan. 20 last Jan. 29. Manglona issued the warrant after Jones did not show up at the revocation hearing.

Jones was first arrested on an indictment charging her with one count of visa fraud and was released last Nov. 24 on a $5,000 unsecured bond.

U.S. Probation officer Gregory Arriola then filed a petition for revocation of her pre-trial release after she failed to appear for random drug tests on Dec. 16, 18, 20, and 30, 2014.

At the Jan. 20 revocation hearing, Jones did not show up in court.

Attorney David Banes, court-appointed counsel for Jones, told the court that since his appointment last Jan. 9, he has made many attempts to contact his client without success.
This prompted Manglona to order the arrest of Jones.

The revocation hearing was held last Feb. 3.

At the revocation hearing, Jones, through counsel Banes, admitted to the violations alleged in the petition to revoke the pretrial release.

Assistant U.S. attorney Ross Naughton announced that it wished to present evidence that Jones had committed a new crime by knowingly failing to appear in court last Jan. 20 when summoned to do so.

Naughton said a marshal served the summons on Jeff Magofna at Jones’ last residence, and that Magofna stated he would give the summons to Jones. Banes disclosed, though, that Jones had broken up with Magofna before Jan. 1and had gone to live with her sister.

Naughton argued that the fact that Jones was arrested at the residence where the summons was left is evidence that she lived there and would have known about the summons.

Banes responded that sometime after Jan. 14 and before Jan. 30, Jones had made up with Magofna and returned to that residence.

Citing an exchange of e-mails between Banes and Hall, Manglona said it appears that Jones had agreed to surrender herself at the courthouse by 9am on Jan. 30, and failed to do so because she was trying to make arrangements for her two children to be looked after.

Manglona said Banes e-mailed Hall that Jones would turn herself in at 5pm, but Hall had already gone to arrest her at 12:30pm.