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Convicted ex-cop raises his fruit bat case to 9th Circuit
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Posted on Oct 16 2011
Adrian Atalig Mendiola, a retired police lieutenant who was sentenced to 90 days in prison for killing endangered Mariana fruit bats on Rota, is appealing his conviction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Mendiola raised three legal issues in his appeal for the Ninth Circuit to reverse his conviction.
Mendiola said the first issue is whether there was sufficient evidence that the bats found inside his freezer were of the subspecies protected by federal law, Pteropus mariannus mariannus.
Mendiola, through counsel Ramon Quichocho, previously brought up the Pterupus mariannus mariannus issue in his motion for judgment of acquittal or for a new trial. The District Court denied the motion.
Quichocho had argued in that motion that the record is devoid of any evidence to show that the bats found in his freezer were indeed of the Pteropus mariannus mariannus subspecie.
The second issue on appeal is whether there was sufficient evidence that the “freezer bats” were taken on or after Feb. 7, 2005, when the federal regulations criminalizing the possession of Pteropus mariannus mariannus became final.
Quichocho in the same motion asserted that the final rule of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, which became effective Feb. 7, 2005, reclassified the Pteropus mariannus mariannus (the Mariana fruit bat) from endangered to threatened in Guam and listed as threatened in the CNMI.
Quichocho said the U.S. government failed to present any evidence, forensic or otherwise, regarding the time of death of any of the bats that were found in Mendiola’s freezer.
The last issue on appeal is whether the trial court abused its discretion when it gave an allegedly erroneous supplemental jury instruction during the jury’s deliberation.
A jury found Mendiola guilty in May 2011 of unlawful possession of a threatened wildlife, but not guilty of unlawful receipt or acquisition of a threatened wildlife. U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona sentenced Mendiola to 90 days in jail. After serving his sentence, he will be placed on six months of supervised release.
Mendiola was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and $10 court assessment fee and required to perform 100 hours of community service.
