Woodruff: ‘Attack’ has no legal, factual basis

Attorney Stephen Woodruff accused a U.S. Department of Justice lawyer of attacking him solely because “it is impossible for her” to win a case he represents based on its merits.

Kimberly Helvey, senior litigation counsel of the DOJ’s Office of Immigration Litigation District Court Section, has filed a motion that seeks to have Woodruff disqualified from a case.

Helvey is counsel for U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and co-respondents in Amalia Abo Guanlao’s lawsuit.

Helvey said that Woodruff was disbarred by the CNMI Supreme Court in 2013 and lacks a law license in another state or territory. She also disclosed that Woodruff had never notified the district court that the U.S. Supreme Court had suspended him from practice before it.

Helvey pointed out that on Oct. 11, 2016, before the U.S. Supreme Court suspended Woodruff or more than a month before the filing of Guanlao’s second amended petition, the Hawaii Supreme Court issued a reciprocal discipline disbarring Woodruff.

When asked for comments about the motion for disqualification, Woodruff said Helvey is “trying to derail the case with a delaying tactic” that would deprive Guanlao of her right to a counsel of her choice.

“She is trying to achieve through the back door what she could not do through the front door with her previous motion,” he said.

Woodruff believes that Helvey’s motion are violations of the rules of professional conduct and are sanctionable under Rule 11.

Woodruff said Helvey is trying to do through a disqualification motion what she failed to do with her motion to strike Guanlao’s second amended petition.

He said the motion to disqualify is barred by the same case law as the previous motion was.

Moreover, Woodruff said, there is no legitimate legal or factual basis for the disqualification motion.

He said the arguments that the DOJ litigator makes are not a proper basis under the law for disqualification of an attorney.

“Generally, disqualification of counsel is available only in cases of conflict of interest or conduct detrimental to the interests of justice in or directly related to the immediate proceeding,” Woodruff said.

Woodruff said having lost her previous “frivolous motion,” Helvey is forced to concede that he is duly authorized to practice in the U.S. District Court for the NMI.

“That fact really is the end of the inquiry, as she does not allege, and cannot, any conduct in or related to Ms. Guanlao’s case that could be considered detrimental to the interests of justice (except her own conduct),” the lawyer said.

Woodruff described Helvey’s arguments as “distorted and completely irrelevant.”

He said he could make detailed responses to Helvey’s contentions about Hawaii and the U.S. Supreme Court, but they are irrelevant to anything except in those courts.

Woodruff said the U.S. Supreme Court action is a procedural suspension (by the clerk, not the justices), pursuant to the rules of that court, while that court undertakes the kind of review required by the Constitution of every court.

“It is not substantive in any sense,” he pointed out.

For its part, Woodruff said, the Hawaii court, inexplicably and erroneously imposed reciprocal disbarment based on the CNMI action.

“It was not an independent disciplinary action,” said Woodruff, adding that the peculiar error of the Hawaii Supreme Court is being addressed in due course.

Woodruff noted that he has never been engaged in active practice in Hawaii.

Guanlao, a Filipino mother who has been in the CNMI for 23 years now, has two minor U.S. citizen children but was deemed by the U.S. Immigration as removable from the CNMI.

Aside from Johnson, Guanlao is suing U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervisory detention and deportation officer Gerald Zedde, DHS Enforcement and Removal Operations acting supervisor M. Samaniego, ICE immigration officer G. Andersen, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services district director David Gulick, USCIS/DHS Guam/CNMI field office director Stephen P. Green, USCIS/DHS Guam/CNMI acting field office director Irene Adame, USCIS/DHS California Service Center directors Rosemary Langley Melville and Kathy A. Baran, and USCIS/DHS California Service Center acting director Donna P. Campagnolo.

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has stayed pending further court’s order the removal of Guanlao while the court hears her petition on the merits.