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After 5 witnesses, prosecution rests
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Posted on Aug 23 2011
The prosecution rested its case yesterday afternoon in the jury trial of Wei Lin, a Chinese national accused of fraudulently obtaining a CNMI driver’s license.
Assistant U.S. attorney Kirk Schuler rested the prosecution’s case after calling his fifth and last witness, a Chinese translator.
Attorneys Michael Evangelista and Joseph James Norita Camacho, counsel for Lin, informed U.S. District Court for the NMI visiting judge Mark W. Bennett that they will not call a witness.
Bennett set the closing arguments for today, Wednesday, at 9:30am.
Aside from the translator, Schuler called to the witness stand three police officers and a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Police officer Jesse Stole testified that his involvement in the case was merely obtaining evidence from the Bureau of Motor Vehicle and turning them to ICE special agent Isra Harahap. Stole said he was actually investigating a separate case when he obtained the driver’s license documents belonging to Lin. Stole said that Harahap asked him to get the evidence.
During cross-examination, Stole admitted that there is a log form to sign at BMV to get records, but that sometimes there’s none. The officer agreed with Evangelista that it is possible for anyone from DPS to get records at BMV without permission, as sometimes there’s no available log form.
Stole also agreed with Evangelista that he is not aware of any policy or a memorandum of agreement between DPS and DHS about conducting joint immigration investigations.
Stole also clarified that he was just assisting Harahap and was not enforcing immigration law.
The indictment charged Lin with two counts of document fraud and a count of false statements to a federal agent.
Lin allegedly paid a third-party to obtain the driver’s license without meeting legal requirements.
