Villagomez declines impeachment prosecutor role

House of Representatives Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) declined yesterday the request of Senate Committee on Impeachment Hearing chair Sen. Karl R. King-Nabors (R-Tinian) for him to file a notice of appearance as House impeachment prosecutor.

This developed as Sen. Paul A. Manglona (Ind-Rota) urged Villagomez and Senate president Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian) yesterday to immediately look into an into alleged “ex parte” communication between Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ personal legal counsel, Viola Alepuyo, and the Senate’s privately retained special legal counsel, Joe McDoulett. “Ex parte” means on one side only.

Manglona said there appears an “egregious breach of ethical conduct” that may have broken multiple criminal statutes, rules of the Senate and the American Bar Association’s Rules of Professional Conduct.

Manglona

As of press time yesterday, Saipan Tribune was still trying to obtain comments from Alepuyo and McDoulett.

Villagomez informed King-Nabors in a letter yesterday that several House members, including Reps. Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan), Donald Manglona (Ind-Rota), Corina Magofna (D-Saipan), Leila Staffler (D-Saipan), and Vice Speaker Blas Jonathan Attao (R-Saipan) have been preparing as a team to prosecute the impeachment case against Torres and bring the matter before the Senate as soon as possible.

“I have every confidence that together, these members selected by the House and not the Senate would be able to bring to light all the facts and evidence in support of the six articles of impeachment, so that the Senate would make an informed decision on the merits and in doing so, the process of the impeachment could be objectively seen to be both fair and reasonable, whichever way the Senate decides,” the Speaker said.

King-Nabors in a notice issued Wednesday said the House impeachment prosecutor (Villagomez) shall file and enter an appearance in the impeachment matter on behalf of the House on or before yesterday at 4pm at the Senate Clerk’s Office.

King-Nabors said if the House impeachment prosecutor fails to file and enter an appearance on or before yesterday, Hofschneider shall select a House member to serve as impeachment prosecutor.

In his letter yesterday to Hofschneider, Villagomez said the Senate’s Impeachment Rules violate Article 2 Sections 8 and 17 to the extent that these provisions deny the House and the Legislative Bureau their constitutional right to perform their duties in a fair and reasonable manner.

Villagomez

Villagomez added that these rules were also promulgated in violation of the CNMI Open Government Act; adequate notice and opportunity to comment on the rules prior to their adoption were not provided to the public or to Senate members, he said.

With respect to Manglona’s request for an investigation, the senator claimed that he received a document titled “Senate Impeachment Rules V6.1 Joey Edits” that, according to him, shows “ex parte” communication between Alepuyo and McDoulett.

Manglona said visible in the document’s tracked changes are two edits made by Alepuyo, on page 15 on Feb. 13, 2022, at 11:21am, and two changes made on Feb. 13, 2022, at 11:22am.

The senator said the edits made by McDoulett were made three days later on Feb. 16, 2022.

Manglona said this a clear indication that the governor’s personal counsel either drafted the Senate rules on behalf of Torres or at the very least played a role in drafting, reviewing, and editing the rules that were eventually adopted by the Senate Impeachment Committee and the Senate body as a whole on March 3, 2022.