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Probable cause found to charge BECQ staff and co-defendant
A Superior Court judge found probable cause yesterday to warrant the filing of charges against a staff of the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality and another man who allegedly burglarized a house in Chalan Kiya.
At a preliminary hearing, Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho said there is probable cause to believe that BECQ environmental specialist Elmer John Duenas Sablan and Larry M. Sugiyama may have committed burglary, theft, and conspiracy.
The two will be arraigned on May 12.
Attorney Janet H. King is counsel for Sablan, while assistant public defender Matthew Meyer is counsel for Sugiyama.
Assistant attorney general James McAllister first called to the witness stand police detective Francisco Iginoef, who handled the investigation.
According to Iginoef, the house the suspects allegedly burglarized is being rented by Saipan runner Steven Johnson and his girlfriend, Kaitlin Mattos. At that time, the couple had a guest triathlete from the Philippines.
Iginoef said that Sablan and Sugiyama confessed that they were involved in the burglary on April 17, 2014, and that they sold the stolen items to different people.
Police recovered some of the stolen items during follow-up investigations.
According to Johnson’s guest, she went jogging before 9am but she did not lock the front door. When she returned before 9:40am, she noticed that some items, including her iPhone, were missing.
