Probable cause found to charge man over sexual abuse of 8-year-old girl

Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho on Friday found probable cause to charge 44-year-old Gilbert Sablan Pinaula for sexually abusing an 8-year-old girl.

At a preliminary hearing, Camacho found probable cause to believe that the crimes of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree and disturbing the peace were committed and that Pinaula may have committed the offenses.

Camacho ordered the defendant to answer the charges.

Camacho said to establish probable cause for sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, the government must present evidence such as the date of the offense; that the offense happened in the CNMI; that Pinaula was 18 year or older; the alleged victim was under 16 years old; there was sexual penetration, however slight, of the alleged victim’s private part; and that defendant was a member of the household or that she was aware of the defendant’s position of authority.

Camacho said assistant attorney general Betsy Weintraub indicated that the case is based on Pinaula being a member of the household and that the government was not charging him under the sub-section of position of authority.

Camacho dismissed without prejudice sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree because it is a lesser included of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree.

It means that it is not necessary to charge sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree, as sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree is already included in sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree.

Arraignment will be on July 18 at 9am. After the hearing, Pinaula was remanded into the custody of the Department of Corrections.

Assistant public defender Tillman Clark appeared as counsel for Pinaula.

Camacho noted that Weintraub was prepared in making sure that all the elements of the offense were presented as evidence.

Weintraub called to the witness stand police detective Catherine Pangelinan, who narrated to the court the investigation that led to defendant’s arrest.

In the footnote of his order, just like in a separate as a sexual abuse of a minor case, Camacho compared the issue of the government’s preparedness in Pinaula’s case to the case against former Department of Public Safety commissioner James C. Deleon Guerrero and former police officer Jesse S. Concepcion.

The judge noted that in the case against Deleon Guerrero and Concepcion involving the same charge, during the preliminary hearing the prosecutors failed to completely present all the essential elements of the offense.

Camacho said when the government fails to present all the essential elements at the preliminary hearing, the law requires that the charge be dismissed without prejudice.

Camacho said when a charge is dismissed without prejudice it means that the Office of the Attorney General can re-file the case.

As of Friday, the judge pointed out, the OAG has not re-filed the charges against Deleon Guerrero and Concepcion.

Camacho found no probable cause as to the charge of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree and other charges against Deleon Guerrero and Concepcion.

In Pinaula’s case, detective Pangelinan stated in her report that the 8-year girl and her mother were both crying and shaking when they boarded police car that responded to assist them near Cool Laundry in Finasisu last June 29.

Pangelinan said a patrol car transported the 8-year-old girl and her mother to the Commonwealth Health Center’s examination room last June 29.

Pangelinan said in the examination room, the mother was hugging her daughter, and both were crying.

Pangelinan said the mother disclosed that she noticed that her daughter was feeling sick and she knew something was wrong so she begged her to tell her what happen.

The detective said the daughter cried and confessed that Pinaula sexually assaulted her. The girl also disclosed that it was the second time that the defendant touched her private part.