Cabrera seeks reversal of sentence

Former Finance Secretary Antonio R. Cabrera has sought a judgment of acquittal on two corruption charges for which he was convicted on grounds that the federal court does not have jurisdiction on the case.

His attorney Joseph A. Arriola filed the petition last Monday in the U.S. District Court, less than two weeks after a jury found him guilty on three counts of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds.

The embattled ex-CNMI official, 40, was acquitted on two counts of bribery when the verdict was returned by jurors following a week of trial last month.

He is facing up to 30 years imprisonment, plus fines and restitution, as punishment for the crime. District Judge Alex R. Munson set his sentencing on Feb. 6, 2001 at 9:00 a.m.

In the motion, Mr. Cabrera asked for reversal of the verdict on the two counts, one involving $5,840.73 in typhoon differential pay and the other the $20,000 reimbursement for a Manila trip, both of which he received in 1996 while heading the Department of Finance.

It said the federal regulation cited in the case — Title 18 of the U.S. Code 666 (a)(1)(A) — “does not allow for prosecution for this type of activity.”

Exempted from the application of this statute are wages, fees or other compensation or expenses paid or reimbursed in the usual course of business, the motion stated.

“The funds claimed by the defendant, which form the basis of the alleged criminal activity, were all paid to him for services he claims to have done. If the defendant has unlawfully received funds, then the proper forum would have been the local courts,” it explained.

Likewise, this same principle holds true with the $20,000 that Mr. Cabrera got for the off-island trip in December 1996, which his lawyer claimed was for reimbursement of business expenses.

The amount of typhoon differential he received also failed to meet the statutory minimum dollar requirement of $5,000 for a period of one year since the evidence presented during the trial was a series of authorizations that ran from October 1994 to September 1996, according to the motion.

“As the indictment only alleges a period of offensive conduct from Nov. 26 to Dec. 5, 1996, those are the only actions that can be considered” in the case, it added.

Mr. Arriola noted cases in the U.S. that indicate similar pattern, one of which involved police officers who tampered their time cards to get paid on hours they did not work, which was later dismissed in a federal court due to lack of jurisdiction.

Judge Munson has set the motion for hearing on Dec. 7, while giving federal prosecutors until Nov. 24 to answer the defense’s contention.

Mr. Cabrera, who is free on bail, is facing a separate civil complaint filed by the CNMI government in the local Superior Court, demanding payment of $74,307.59.