Hung jury, mistrial in Pelisamen’s case

After a little over two days of deliberations, a hung jury forced U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Alex R. Munson to declare a mistrial around 4:30pm yesterday in the case of former Kaipat estate administrator Luis Kaipat Pelisamen.

Pelisamen is facing charges of committing wire fraud, wire fraud and money laundering after he was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in January 2008.

Defense attorney Douglas Cushnie told Saipan Tribune that Pelisamen is a fairly calm person and accepted the declaration of mistrial.

“The jury was deadlocked and they couldn’t agree [on a verdict]…Certainly, my client is not interested in going through the same process. He’s not looking forward to that but we’ll continue with the process,” Cushnie said.

The jury, which consisted of 12 jurors plus two alternates, started deliberation on Wednesday.

Munson has set a new trial for June 15, when a new jury selection takes place, according to the U.S. District for the NMI office.

Pelisamen’s jury trial began in federal court on Monday. Munson completed the jury selection in the morning. In the afternoon, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Schuler conducted the opening arguments for the U.S. government, while Cushnie did the opening arguments for Pelisamen.

Pelisamen was appointed administrator of the Kaipat estate on Sept. 27, 2005. Lawyer Joseph Arriola served as Pelisamen’s counsel in that probate. Pelisamen and Arriola were accused of drafting 66 checks amounting to $219,000 payable to both of them.

Then Superior Court Associate Judge Lizama kicked out Pelisamen and Arriola from the estate after finding that some money in the estate were missing.

According to the indictment, Arriola and Pelisamen transferred money amounting to $1,377,058.39 belonging to the Kaipat estate from the Bank of Guam to the Bank of Hawaii on Nov. 28, 2005, thereby causing communications by wire between Saipan and Hawaii.

The declaration of mistrial in the Pelisamen case happened exactly a week after another federal jury issued a guilty verdict on former Timothy P. Villagomez of charges relating to a scheme to defraud the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. through needless purchases of a de-scaling chemical called Rydlyme. Villagomez resigned from his position of lieutenant governor.