Brown says Senate will provide confirmation tape

The Senate will turn over to the Superior Court its tape that recorded the Nov. 17, 2003 session, which allegedly confirms Pamela Brown’s nomination as attorney general.

According to Brown, she spoke with Senate President Joaquin Adriano, who agreed to turn over the Senate’s tape to the court. Adriano would direct the Legislative Bureau to turn over the tape, Brown said.

“I can assure you that the tape contains what our transcript says,” Brown said.

Brown said, however, that her office would only turn over to the court its copy of the tape if the judge asks for it.

The Public Defender’s Office had said that the AGO’s tape might have been tampered with. Assistant public defender Angela Marie Krueger said that the AGO’s transcript does not accurately reflect what is contained in the Public Defender’s Office’s tape that was obtained from the Senate.

Krueger had turned over to the court the Public Defender’s Office’s tape. Deputy attorney general Clyde Lemons Jr., in a hearing at the courtroom of presiding judge Robert Naraja Tuesday, agreed to turn over the AGO’s tape supposedly yesterday.

But Brown said that the AGO’s copy of the tape would not be necessary if the court receives the original copy from the Senate. However, she said the AGO would submit its tape for the court’s inspection if the latter asks for it.

Regardless of whether or not there was any tampering, public defender Masood Karimipour said the Nov. 17, 2003 confirmation of Brown would be void because the 90-day statutory deadline for her to be confirmed by the Senate had already expired.

“After 90 days, it makes the Senate action moot,” Karimipour said.

Gov. Juan N. Babauta nominated Brown on June 16, 2003. The 90-day deadline fell on Sept. 14 that year, when the Senate had no action on the nomination yet.

On Sept. 17, 2003, a four-member Senate faction convened a session that explicitly rejected brown’s nomination. But an opposing faction, composed of five Senate members, convened on Nov. 17 that year and confirmed Brown.

In Tuesday’s hearing, the Public Defender’s Office asked the court to dismiss the charges against three men in separate cases on the ground that those cases were not brought to court by a lawful attorney general.