Camacho denies ex-convict’s request to modify $6K cash bail

Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho yesterday denied a request to modify the $6,000 cash bail imposed on an ex-convict accused of checking in at a hotel and buying items at different stores using forged checks.

Camacho denied defendant James Anthony Palacios Webb’s application to modify bail after finding defendant’s mother, Lucia Palacios, not suitable to serve as his third-party custodian.

The judge said he knows that Palacios loves his son and that she is a religious person.

Camacho, however, noted that Palacios herself filed a temporary restraining order against her son for raising his voice to her, among other reasons.

Camacho said Palacios also admitted that sometimes the defendant would not listen to her.

The judge told assistant public defender Tillman Clark, counsel for Webb, that he is welcome to renew the request to modify bail by proposed another person to serve as third-party custodian.

Palacios begged the court to release her 25-year-old son so he could finish his GED and better his life.

“My son is not perfect so are we,” Palacios said.

The mother said all these things about drugs, stealing, and gambling have to be stopped.

Assistant public defender Clark asked the court to modify the bail by allowing Webb to post $600 or 10 percent of the $6,000.

Clark proposed the mother as third-party custodian.

Assistant attorney general Heather Barcinas, counsel for the government, objected to any modification of bail and to have Palacios as third-party custodian.

Barcinas said the government feels that Palacios is not capable of controlling her son.

Barcinas said Palacios testified about her TRO because the defendant raised his voice to her, that the defendant once left their house and she could not contact him for several days, and that she would feel drowsy when taking medication.

Police arrested Webb last December for allegedly checking in at Paradise Hotel using a forged check in the amount of $319.25.

Police said Webb admitted to receiving several blank checks from Summer Holiday Hotel and writing at least seven checks amounting to over $400 at different stores on Saipan.

The Office of the Attorney General originally charged Webb with one count of theft and three counts of forgery.

The OAG subsequently amended the information to charge the defendant with only one count of theft.

According to the amended information, Webb stole approximately $1,352.68 in hotel services, food items, cigarettes, miscellaneous store items, and U.S. currency from Paradise Hotel, Twins Supermarket, and San Roque Market.

Webb was previously convicted for stealing the credit card of the KZNM/KCMI radio station and purchasing gas and other items in the amount of $94.21 at the Shell Highway Express in Gualo Rai. In April 2015, he was slapped with a two-month prison term.