Ex-Customs cashier gets 30 days for theft

Superior Court Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama imposed yesterday a 30-day prison term on a former Customs cashier charged with stealing public money at the post office.

Following a plea agreement, Lizama sentenced Genoveva DLG. Lee to three years in prison, all suspended except for 30 days.

Lizama gave Lee credit for the three days she had already served in jail.

The judge granted the defendant’s request to start serving the 27-day prison term at the Department of Corrections on Feb. 1 at 9am.

Lee was ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution, a $250 fine, plus court assessment and probation fees. She was also required to perform 20 hours of community work service.

“You are not too young. You are old enough. You should be ashamed of yourself,” the judge told the 45-year-old Lee.

Lizama said that what the defendant did was a continuing form of stealing public money.

“You never stopped until you were caught,” said the judge, as he explained the importance of his earlier decision to reject the first plea agreement.

Lizama had rejected last week the plea agreement entered by the Attorney General’s Office and Lee.

In turning down the first plea bargain, Lizama said he believes that the sentence proposed in the agreement was not sufficient, considering the seriousness of the charges.

Under the first plea agreement entered by former assistant attorney general John Eaton, the proposed sentence was three years in prison, all suspended, with credit for the two days Lee had already served in jail, for theft.

The agreement also sought supervised probation, $3,000 in restitution, $100 fine, and 20 hours of community work service, among other things.

With the rejection of the first plea bargain, the AGO and Lee reached another plea agreement.

If the defendant completes all the terms and conditions of the agreement, her criminal records would be erased as part of the agreement.

The information stated that from May 2005 and continuing to August 2005, Lee unlawfully took $3,000 belonging to the CNMI government.

Lee was arrested in September 2005 by members of the Customs Task Force at the Customs Training Center.

Lee confessed to stealing over $3,000 since May 2005, although Customs agents’ investigation indicated that there was a total of $10,800 missing in taxpayers’ money from Customs at the post office, according to a member of the Customs Task Force.

Lee reportedly admitted to investigators that since May 2005 she took the money that she received from customers at the Customs Service to buy methamphetamine or “ice” and to pay her bills.