Wiseman’s nomination gets yet another blow

What alleged involvement in the prostitution business had failed to do, accusations of bribery is expected to finish.

Rep. Stanley Torres yesterday called on members of the Senate Committee on Executive Appointments and Governmental Investigations to junk the nomination of lawyer David A. Wiseman as Superior Court associate judge.

This, after Mr. Torres unearthed a 1988 FBI written document where a former CUC employee confessed that Mr. Wiseman and his client, Adrian Johnston, paid him a total of $12,000 to $13,000 to “flat-rate” electric charges of the now-defunct Surf Hotel in San Antonio.

In his “confession letter” to FBI agents Richard Alan Morris and Thomas P. Ernst dated March 22, 1988, Jesus Aguon Sasomoto revealed that Mr. Wiseman paid him $600.00 every month from the period 1985 to 1986. The money was allegedly a reward for charging only about $800 a month for Surf Hotel’s electric bills when the correct billing should have been $1,800.

The Pacific Island Club now occupies the lot where the Surf Hotel used to stand.

Mr. Torres also revealed that a lot of people have been calling him since he begun his crusade against Mr. Wiseman’s appointment.

“I have been contacted by many people who say that Mr. Wiseman is dishonest and that he doesn’t have the brains to be a judge. I don’t know which is worse, not have the brains to be a decent judge or being so crooked that he would bribe a CUC official and cheat the government out of its revenue,” the congressman remarked.

“What amazes me most, is that Mr. Wiseman has known all along that he committed the crime of bribery. He knows that somehow he beat the rap. He knows what he did. But he keeps denying the truth. I guess, he thought he could keep it under cover,” Mr. Torres added.

But Mr. Wiseman apparently forgot about Mr. Sasomoto. In exchange for Mr. Sasomoto’s confession-statement, the government agreed not to prosecute him for taking the bribe.

Since his nomination by Governor Pedro P. Tenorio last January, Mr. Wiseman has been besieged by criticism ranging from involvement in the world’s oldest profession to being called the “most infamous and disreputable Saipan attorney.”

The Senate last week decided to delay the confirmation of the embattled lawyer’s nomination as Superior Court associate judge, pending the conduct of a public hearing by the he powerful Senate Committee on Executive Appointments and Governmental Investigations.

A public hearing will be conducted on Feb. 28, which delays Mr. Wiseman’s confirmation as associate judge for at least another two weeks.

EAGI has expressed plans to carefully look into the allegations hurled against Mr. Wiseman before it acts on his nomination. The powerful senate body is also open to the idea that the associate judge-appointee should be afforded the opportunity to respond to the accusations.

Mr. Torres earlier challenged the upper chamber to open the envelope containing the cases hurled against Mr. Wiseman before the CNMI Bar Disciplinary Committee.

A long-time contender to the post, Mr. Wiseman’s name was bypassed when the governor appointed lawyer Eric Smith in April last year along with former Judge Manglona. Mr. Smith was never confirmed by the Senate up until his nomination expired three months later. MARK RABAGO