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Federal court delays trial of immigration doc fraud case
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Posted on Dec 05 2011
By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter
Reporter
The federal court has postponed the Dec. 12 jury trial of a man in an immigration document fraud case, as requested by both prosecution and defense counsel.
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona ruled that going ahead with the Dec. 12 jury trial without giving Steven Romie Aguon more time to prepare would likely result in a miscarriage of justice.
“Failure to grant this continuance and find excludable delay would unreasonably deny counsel for defendant the reasonable time necessary for effective preparation,” said Manglona in the order.
Attorney Michael Norita Evangelista, counsel for Aguon, and assistant U.S. attorney Beverly R. McCallum both asked for the postponement of the trial to January 2012.
The prosecution had turned over about 450 pages of documents to Evangelista, who said he needs more time to review them.
The review process is complicated by the fact that Aguon is currently incarcerated in the Department of Corrections on a previous criminal case.
Aguon has been indicted on one count of immigration document fraud. He allegedly made a false statement to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services when he applied for a petition for a relative.
Aguon allegedly stated that he was married to Linlin Song when he in fact divorced her on Feb. 23, 2009.
Aguon has a prior conviction for sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree. He was sentenced to two years in prison in October 2010.
