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Villagomez’s 3rd request to extend deadline OK’d
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Posted on Sep 27 2008
The federal court has granted Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez’s third request to grant him an extension on the deadline to file pre-trial motions.
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Alex R. Munson ordered Villagomez to file his pre-trial motions no later than 3:30pm on Nov. 10, 2008.
Munson allowed the new deadline extension following a stipulation entered by Villagomez’s lawyer, Joey San Nicolas, and assistant U.S. attorney Eric O’Malley.
According to the stipulation, the federal court on Sept. 17 granted the lieutenant governor’s request to waive his right to a speedy trial. The judge set a new trial for March 23, 2009.
The stipulation said additional discovery will be provided to Villagomez and that this requires additional time to review to adequately prepare motions.
The original deadline was Aug. 25, 2008. Munson extended the deadline to Sept. 8 after Villagomez’s lawyer and O’Malley entered a stipulation to extend the deadline.
In the first request for extension, San Nicolas stated that the discovery received so far is voluminous and requires enough time to review to prepare pre-trial motions.
In the second motion to extend the deadline, San Nicolas underscored the need for another deadline considering that the U.S. government will provide additional discovery to them after the Sept. 8 deadline.
Munson granted the second request and set the deadline to no later than 3:30pm on Sept. 22, 2008.
Villagomez, James Santos, Joaquina Santos, and former Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Anthony Guerrero were indicted with conspiring to bilk CUC out of thousands of dollars through business deals involving needless chemical purchases for CUC.
Villagomez and the Santos couple pleaded not guilty.
Guerrero signed a plea agreement and entered a guilty plea. It has been reported that he will testify for the prosecution when the case goes to trial.
