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Man accused of filing false statement to get new passport,to plead guilty
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Posted on Jun 04 2012
By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter
Reporter
A Tinian resident who is facing an indictment in federal court for allegedly filing false statement to get a new U.S. passport, has signed a plea deal with the U.S. government.
On Friday, assistant U.S. attorney Ross K. Naughton notified the U.S. District Court for the NMI regarding Geoffrey Kim Cabrera’s plea agreement with the U.S. government.
With the plea bargain, Naughton asked the court to vacate the jury trial date and instead set Cabrera’s case for a change of plea hearing on June 19 at 1:30pm.
Under the plea agreement, Cabrera agrees to plead guilty to count 1 of the indictment charging him with false statement in an application for U.S. passport.
The U.S. government agrees to recommend to the court that the defendant receive a sentence at the lowest end of the guidelines imprisonment range deemed applicable by the court.
According to the indictment, on Feb. 12, 2010 Cabrera submitted a written application for a U.S. passport from the U.S. Department of State.
Cabrera allegedly falsely stated in the application that his most recently issued U.S. passport had been lost during a sea travel on board a small vessel.
The indictment alleged that the statement was false as the passport had not been lost, but instead the defendant surrendered it to the CNMI Superior Court on Dec. 23, 2009, as a condition of his pretrial release in the 2009 criminal case.
In May 2011, a Superior Court jury came back with a not-guilty verdict on Cabrera as to the charge of sexual abuse in the second degree.
