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Hillbroom pleads guilty in Palau, gets 60-day prison term
Junior Larry Hillbroom recently pleaded guilty to a lesser included offense of escape in the second degree before the Supreme Court of the Republic of Palau Trial Division and was slapped with a 60-day prison term.
According to documents filed yesterday in federal court by attorney Mark H. Hanson, Hillbroom signed a plea agreement with the Palau government and entered a guilty plea last June 12.
Hanson is the Saipan counsel for Hillbroom in the latter’s legal malpractice lawsuit filed in the District Court against his former counsels David J. Lujan and Barry Israel. The jury trial in this lawsuit will be on Feb. 6, 2018.
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona wants to know the status of Hillbroom’s criminal cases pending in Palau.
Manglona asked Hillbroom’s new counsel, Rachel Dimitruk, to be prepared to advise the court and the parties in the lawsuit as to the status of Hillbroom’s criminal cases at the conference on June 29, 2017.
According to court documents, Palau Associate Justice Lourdes Materne sentenced Hillbroom to five years of supervised probation with the conditions that he shall serve 60 days in jail, attend and complete an in-patient drug rehabilitation program, write a letter of apology, and pay a $2,000 fine and restitution in an amount to be determined by the Probation Office (if any).
Materne exonerated Hillbroom’s bail of $25,000 cash in this matter.
In a separate order pertaining to Hillbroom’s drug case, Materne issued an order last June 14 setting a hearing for Oct. 16, 2017 on Hillbroom’s motion for production of discovery.
Hillbroom is one of the four DNA-proven children of the late business tycoon and DHL co-founder Larry Lee Hillblom. He was recaptured in Palau hours after he escaped from police custody on Feb. 9, 2016 just a few hours after he was arrested over the seizure of $160,000 worth of methamphetamine or “ice.”
Hillbroom’s name is spelled differently from DHL co-founder Hillblom. Hillbroom’s mother, Kaelani Kinney, is Palauan.
