Bergeron belies MPLA allegation

CNMI Supreme Court Associate Justice Alexandro Castro’s former special research attorney, Diane K. Bergeron, denied yesterday the Marianas Public Lands Authority’s allegations that she had unlawfully received a cash payment from the attorneys of former Bank of Saipan receiver Randall Fennell.

In a complaint filed with the Superior Court sometime last week, the MPLA had alleged that David Axelrod and his law firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, which rendered services to Fennell during the latter’s receivership term, made an “unlawful” payment of $11,977.40 to Bergeron.

The MPLA alleged that the payment was aimed at soliciting documents from Bergeron, which Fennell would use in an alleged smear campaign against CNMI magistrates.

Bergeron sent an e-mail to the Saipan Tribune yesterday, demanding a retraction in its Oct. 13 article that mentioned the “unlawful cash payment” to her as part of the MPLA’s complaint against Fennell, lawyer Richard Pierce and his former law firm, White, Pierce, Mailman & Nutting, Axelrod and the Schwabe firm.

“Most disturbing to me is the statement that…I received an ‘unlawful’ cash payment. It was neither ‘unlawful’ nor was it ‘cash.’ The term ‘unlawful’ is what most disturbs me. That is a defamatory statement and totally untrue, therefore it is grounds [sic] for a libel suit against your newspaper,” Bergeron told the Saipan Tribune.

Bergeron said she is not a public figure and said she was not a law clerk for Justice Castro. She said she was Castro’s special research attorney during the Hillblom estate proceedings and “temporary trustee” of the Hillblom Memorial Fund in 1999 and 2000.

“Did your reporter ever bother to check with the court system to determine when, or where, or if, such payment was ever determined to be ‘unlawful,’” Bergeron asked.

In the MPLA’s suit against Fennell and his attorneys, the agency’s attorneys stated: “Axelrod and Schwabe secretly made an unlawful cash payment of $11,977.40 to CNMI Supreme Court Associate Justice Alex Castro’s former special research attorney/law clerk ‘at receiver’s request’ as part of their campaign to smear CNMI judges and scheme to ruin the bank.”

“This illicit payment and other secret receivership work were concealed from the court apparently through a separate Schwabe trust account related to the Hillblom Estate case,” the MPLA attorneys said.

The MPLA attached a copy of the alleged “secret bills” as part of the complaint’s exhibits. The Schwabe firm allegedly paid the bills in 2002.