Judge precludes testimony of Atalig’s expert witness

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona granted Thursday the U.S. government’s motion to preclude testimony of Rota Mayor Efraim M. Atalig’s expert witness, former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and federal criminal investigator Dr. Gregory Vecchi.

Manglona made the ruling after she granted Evelyn Atalig’s motion to strike surplusage from Count 5 of the indictment that charged her with false statement. Surplusage refers in this case to matter that is not necessary or relevant to the case.

Steven Pixley, counsel for Evelyn Atalig, moved to strike some wordings in the false statement count as the parties argued whether or not to preclude Vecchi’s testimony.

Pixley asked the court to strike or remove from the false statement count any reference to Evelyn Atalig stating she stayed with her sister in Guam when, in fact, she stayed in a hotel with Efraim Atalig, which Office of the Public Auditor Travis Hurst had testified.

Assistant U.S. attorney Eric S. O’Malley, counsel for the U.S. government, did not object to Pixley’s motion.

Count 5 that refers to false statement against Evelyn Atalig states that on Aug. 10, 2018, in the District of the NMI, Evelyn Atalig lied to a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the purpose of the trip was to meet with DLA Disposition Services and was an official trip, and that she stayed with her sister in Guam when, in fact, she stayed in a hotel with Efraim M. Atalig and the purpose of the trip was personal and political, and not official.

Manglona directed the jurors to return Friday for the resumption of the trial of Efraim and Evelyn Atalig.

The defense called several witnesses Thursday.

Rota Department of Public Safety resident director Glenn Maratita testified that he, at that time a member of the CNMI House of Representative, joined Efraim and Evelyn Atalig in a trip to San Diego for the Chamorro Cultural Festival in March 2018.

Maratita said she saw the Ataligs at the event, in which Evelyn Atalig was offering leis to people who attended the festival. He said he also saw Mayor Atalig visited a hospital in San Diego and also handed a resolution of appreciation to a person for volunteering for medical referral.

Department of Lands and Natural Resources Secretary Anthony T. Benavente testified that he saw the Ataligs at the one-day Agricultural Fair on Saipan in August 2018. Benavente said it was raining hard on that day and that he approached the mayor and asked him to join them for lunch.

In the U.S. government’s brief in the motion to preclude Vecchi’s testimony, assistant attorney general Garth Backe said that prior to trial, on May 1, 2020, defendants provided the following notice in regards to Vecchi’s anticipated testimony: “Dr. Vecchi is expected to testify that th investigation of this case exhibits confirmation bias against the defendants on the part of the government investigators (primarily but not solely FBI special agent Haejun Park); that this government investigators (primarily Park) improperly influenced and threatened witnesses; and that the government investigators (primarily Park) failed to conform to accepted investigative standards and practices.”

Backe said the U.S. government has now rested and that during its presentation of evidence, the government never presented any evidence regarding interviews done by its investigators (other than the interviews of the defendants themselves). He said it never presented any evidence that some witnesses admitted to initially lying during their interviews. He said the jury never heard Efraim Atalig “confessed to initially lying and admitted that the real reason for the trip to Guam was to attend a GOP political rally,” or that Efraim Atalig “apologized for lying and was remorseful.”

Perhaps, most importantly, Park never took the stand, Backe said.

He said if Vecchi is allowed to testify, the jury will have to focus on the actions of a witness they never heard from, regarding events that occurred months (sometimes years) after the offenses alleged in the superseding indictment.
In Efraim Atalig’s opposition, David Banes said the defense seeks to elicit testimony from Vecchi impeaching the government’s investigation of the defendants. Banes said that Vecchi’s testimony is relevant to testimony that has already been given at trial, particularly by OPA investigator Travis Hurst. Banes said the government tries to make it appear that Vecchi’s testimony would relate solely to Park, who did not testify.

“Dr. Vecchi’s testimony as at least as relevant to Hurst’s testimony as it would have been to Park’s,” he said, adding that Vecchi’s testimony is proper because it goes to Hurst’s bias.

The prosecution alleged that the Ataligs went on a lot of CNMI-funded trips in 2018 with the primary, if not the only purpose, was personal and not official.

The prosecution cited eight trips taken by the Ataligs at different times in 2018 to Guam, Palau, the U.S. mainland, South Korea, and Saipan.