Athlete: Arrest warrant caused by miscommunication

Local sports star Kelvin Fitial says his four-year-old outstanding arrest warrant in California is a matter than needs to be resolved between the California judge and probation officer.

Fitial, who was convicted of burglary in Butte County, Calif., in 2003, served nearly a year of his five-year sentence.

When Fitial was up for probation, the judge, over the objections of the prosecutor and probation department, placed Fitial on probation and allowed him to return to Saipan. Under the probation terms he was to write his probation officer once a month, pay restitution and complete community service. An e-mail between Fitial’s public defender and Betty Miller, who Fitial considers a mother, confirms the conditions.

At his first probation meeting, the officer told Fitial he would not let him return to Saipan, Miller said.

“Well, it’s not the probation officer’s decision,” she said. “It’s the judge’s decision, so Kelvin came back to Saipan, met the terms of the agreement and wrote to the probation officer once monthly.”

After the first month, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office issued a warrant for his arrest for violating probation. Fitial is included on the Sheriff’s Web page of wanted fugitives.

At this time, Fitial and Miller sent a letter to the judge saying, “Look, judge, he’s not violating probation, he’s doing exactly what you told him to do,” but they received no response, Miller said. After two months and no response from the judge or probation officer, Fitial stopped writing the probation office, because the warrant was already out for his arrest.

Miller said the probation department has both Fitial’s and her current contact information.

“If California really wanted him, they wouldn’t have to work too hard to find him,” she said. “He hasn’t been hiding from this, but at the same time, he hasn’t been formally notified that he missed a court date.”

The matter needs to be addressed between the probation officer and judge, Fitial and Miller said. Miller believes the probation officer got a different judge to sign off on the arrest warrant.

Fitial could pursue the case and clear his name but “at this point in his life it hasn’t really affected his quality of life on Saipan,” Miller said.

He has not returned to the U.S. mainland since he was released from jail, and Miller said she does not recommend he travel to the U.S. until the case is cleared, although Fitial has traveled to Guam. When he goes through immigration his name is flagged, but once he shows the officers the judge’s release he has been able to proceed, Fitial said.

There’s no clear-cut process on how to go about addressing the situation for Fitial, Miller said, adding that he can’t easily travel to California to fix a mess he didn’t cause.

A representative from the Butte County Sheriff’s Office said she could not comment on Fitial’s case, but that if his picture is on the Web site then he “violated probation in some way.”

During his time in jail, Fitial said he researched cases and learned that he should have been charged with breaking and entering, a lesser charge, and not burglary, because no items were taken out of their original location. But because he did not understand the U.S. legal system at the time, he said he signed whatever his public defender told him to.

Fitial is set to be a main event at the upcoming Trench Warz IX on Dec. 12. Trench Tech president and event promoter Justis “Cuki’ Alvaraez said he could not comment on Fitial’s case until he learned more about the situation.

Miller said mixed martial arts has helped Fitial and his friends tremendously.

“Mixed martial arts changes people for the better,” she said. “Those boys have changed a lot. It’s a channel for their aggression.”