OAG motion to add traffic charge against cop granted

The Superior Court granted yesterday the Office of the Attorney General’s motion to file traffic charge against a police officer who crashed his car while allegedly intoxicated, resulting in serious injuries by his girlfriend.

Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho issued the order after hearing assistant attorney general Jonathan Robert Glass Jr., and Dixon Kwon’s counsel, Charity Hodson.

Camacho set the bench trial of Police Officer 1 Kwon for July 30, 2018.

The second amended information charged Kwon with seven traffic charges: driving while under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent or more, driving while under the influence of alcohol, reckless driving causing bodily injury, two counts of fleeing the scene of an accident, failure to have motor vehicle liability insurance while operating a vehicle on a public highway, and failure to have motor vehicle liability insurance in possession while operating a vehicle on a public highway.

In the government’s motion, Glass said the Commonwealth Rules of Criminal Procedure permits an information to be amended at any time before verdict or finding if no additional or different offense is charged and if substantial rights of the defendant are not prejudiced.

Glass said in this case, the government asserts that amending the information does not include a new offense, but merely clarifies the two different ways in which the illegal conduct is alleged to have occurred.

The first amended information charged Kwon with six traffic charges.

In Kwon’s opposition, Hodson said the court should deny the OAG’s motion because it has failed to provide the information needed not only for Kwon to respond to the request, but also because the court lacks the information required to even consider it.

According to Glass, on July 22, 2017 on Saipan, Kwon, while under the influence of alcohol, drove his vehicle into a tree, injuring Deedra Santos.

Kwon allegedly failed to stop at the scene of the accident and failed to provide medical assistance to the injured Santos.

Police said Kwon was driving his Nissan car when the vehicle ran off the road on As Gonno Highway and hit a tree near the Coral Ocean Point Golf Resort.

When officers arrived, Kwon was not at the scene, but the injured Santos was there.

Kwon was an off-duty DUI officer for DPS at the time of the accident. He is currently assigned with DPS Criminal Investigation Bureau, Saipan Tribune learned.