Amended order charges Langu with sex assault in first degree

Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho yesterday amended his order to find probable cause to charge George Norris Langu Jr., 18, with sexual assault in the first degree for allegedly raping his 16-year-old neighbor.

Camacho ordered Langu to answer the charge in addition to the charges of burglary, assault and battery, disturbing the peace, and criminal mischief, which the court already found probable cause for at the Sept. 15 preliminary hearing.

The judge issued the amended order during yesterday’s hearing on the government’s motion for the trial court to reconsider its dismissal of the charge of sexual assault in the first degree at the preliminary hearing.

Assistant attorneys general Barbara Cepeda and Matthew Baisley appeared for the government. Assistant public defender Cindy Nesbit appeared as counsel for Langu.

Camacho initially dismissed the first-degree sexual assault charge during the preliminary hearing on Sept. 15, citing what he said was a loophole in the sex crime laws. The government filed the petition for mandamus that asked the high court to instruct Camacho to reinstate the charge. Last week, the CNMI Supreme Court ruled that Camacho erred by dismissing the sexual assault in the first degree charge based on the ages of the offender and victim. The justices directed Camacho to reconsider his previous order.

In his amended order yesterday, Camacho said in the Superior Court, there are five judges, each with his or her slight different interpretation of what has been referred to as the “Romeo and Juliet exception” in sex crime laws. As the highest court in the CNMI jurisdiction, the CNMI Supreme Court rulings have the constitutional force of judicially created law, Camacho said.

He agreed that when cases are decided based on statutory or judicially created law, then the innocent will not suffer or the guilty will not escape.

“Each judge is duty bound to follow the law—statutory or judicially created,” he pointed out.

Camacho cited that in 2014, when a similar issue regarding the “Romeo and Juliet exception” arose in the criminal case against William Atalig Jr., the prosecution simply dropped the matter.

He said a year later, newly elected Attorney General Edward Manibusan and assistant attorney general Baisley pursued the issue in Langu’s case to clarify the interpretation that split the Superior Court.

“Rightly so, as a very young Commonwealth there are vast areas of law with gaps that require enactment of rules or rulings from the Supreme Court. We continue to add to the CNMI body of law,” Camacho said.

He said he appreciates the CNMI Supreme Court’s quick action in Langu’s case.

He said the high court’s ruling basically abolishes the “Romeo and Juliet Exception.”

The prosecution, the judge noted, can now charge sexual assault in the first degree when an 18, 19, 20 year-old has sex with a 16- or 17-year-old with or without consent.

Camacho noted that at the preliminary hearing, police detective Catherine Pangelinan testified that when the 18-year-old Langu was sexually assaulting the 16-year-old girl, also present in the bedroom was her 27-year-old boyfriend.

Camacho said Pangelinan testified that the girl admitted to having had consensual sex with her 27-year-old boyfriend.

The judge said Pangelinan testified that the grandmother of the girl has repeatedly called the Division of Youth Services to come and arrest the boyfriend.

“To date, there have been no charges filed against the 27-year-old boyfriend of the 16-year-old girl,” Camacho said.