Atalig: Nothing to apologize for

Rota Mayor Efraim M. Atalig leaves the U.S. District Court for the NMI building in Garapan with his counsel Robert O’Connor after a status conference Tuesday morning. FERDIE DE LA TORRE

Rota Mayor Efraim M. Atalig, who has been indicted on corruption charges, insisted yesterday that he did nothing wrong and has nothing to apologize for.

Atalig’s private lawyer, Robert O’Connor, said the U.S. government is sometimes too intent in finding corruption where none exists. This causes the U.S. government to ignore reasonable and truthful explanations for what they incorrectly assumed was wrongful conduct, he said.

“This is one of those cases,” said O’Connor, adding that the mayor is “one of the CNMI’s most dedicated and honest public servants.”

“The jury in this case will have a wonderful opportunity to write an injustice and force the federal government to be more careful in not to jump into conclusions,” he added.

Atalig appeared with O’Connor during a status conference yesterday morning before U.S. District Court for the NMI Magistrate Judge Heather L. Kennedy.

O’Connor said although he is appearing for the mayor for this status conference, he will most likely be appearing with co-counsel David Banes in this matter.

The status conference was held as the judge wants to see if the mayor has retained a private counsel to represent him in the federal case.

O’Connor noted that Atalig had just retained his office as of Monday to serve as his counsel.

Assistant U.S. attorney Eric O’Malley told the court that the prosecution would likely be seeing superseding indictment with additional charges that may affect the October trial date.

O’Malley also stated that the pretrial motion deadline is today, Wednesday.

O’Connor asked for a one -week continuance to file pre-trial motions. Kennedy granted O’Connor’s request; the pretrial motions deadline as reset to Sept. 26, 2018.

Kennedy said the trial date and motions in limine, however, will remain the same. In U.S. law, a motion in limine is a motion, discussed outside the presence of the jury, to request that certain testimony be excluded.

Citing that Atalig is still a mayor and is out on own cognizance, O’Malley asked the court that the defendant be ordered not to discuss anything related to the case with any potential witnesses.

A federal grand jury indicted the 57-year-old Atalig after he allegedly arranged a government-funded trip from Rota to Guam for himself and 12 others, including eight municipal employees, on an allegedly false claim that he was going to check for surplus equipment at the Naval Base in Guam. The indictment alleges that the mayor actually went there to participate in a partisan political rally last June 23 in Mangilao.

The indictment charged the mayor with only one count of wire fraud. He had already pleaded not guilty.

Atalig is facing another case that the Office of the Attorney General filed before the Superior Court arising from the same political rally.

In the Superior Court case, Atalig and seven other Rota municipal officials are charged each with theft and misconduct in public office. Their arraignment will be on Sept. 28, 2018.