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Weintraub grateful for ruling but says damage is done
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Posted on Apr 08 2019
Former assistant attorney general Elizabeth “Betsy” Weintraub is grateful that the CNMI Supreme Court has ruled that she did not commit prosecutorial misconduct but said the findings will not undo the damage caused by online publication of the original orders.
“My hope is that, in the future, Superior Court judges will consider the serious professional and financial consequences for the attorney before publicly naming them like this,” said Weintraub in an email last Thursday.
Weintraub, who now lives in the U.S. mainland, said she is very happy with the recent CNMI Supreme Court ruling, especially the high court’s recognition of the serious consequences that this kind of sanction can have on an attorney’s professional reputation.
The former AAG refers to the CNMI Supreme Court’s ruling last week that overturned Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho’s finding that she committed prosecutorial misconduct during the jury trial of David James Aguon.
Weintraub said she is grateful for the “excellent work” of Joseph E. Horey, who served as her private counsel in her appeal to the high court.
“It was an honor for me to serve the people of the CNMI for two years but, unfortunately, my experience there was clouded by publication of two sanction orders, both of which have now been overturned. The appellate process took two years to complete,” she said.
The second case refers to Superior Court Associate Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio’s 2017 order that sanctioned Weintraub by requiring her to pay $500 to a non-profit organization in the CNMI that helpis sexually abused children.
In that case, Weintraub served as prosecutor in a sexual abuse of a minor case against a retired Army reservist.
Last January, the CNMI Supreme Court vacated Kim-Tenorio’s order, citing that the judge’s view of the law was “clearly erroneous” as she imposed sanction although she could not, and did not, find that Weintraub had acted in bad faith.
