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Delay OK’d in trial of Guam resident who allegedly impregnated a minor
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Posted on Dec 21 2011
U.S. District Court for the NMI designated judge Frances M. Tydingco-Gatewood has ordered a delay in the trial of a Guam resident who is facing charges of impregnating a minor on Rota due to the illness of the prosecution’s expert witness.
The trial of 49-year-old Melvin David Diaz will now begin on Feb. 6, 2012, to give time for the U.S. government’s Texas-based DNA expert to recover from a speech problem brought on by Bell’s palsy.
The jury trial was originally set for Dec. 27, 2011.
Assistant U.S. attorney Clyde Lemons Jr. had asked the court to postpone the trial for at least six weeks due to the unexpected medical condition of Dr. Wayne L. Hoffman.
Hoffman is manager and associate laboratory director at Orchid Cellmark, Inc. Dallas Laboratory, Farmers Branch, Texas. Orchid Cellmark Inc. is reportedly accredited to conduct DNA testing in paternity and other types of relationship testing.
Lemons said that failure to grant their request for continuance will likely “result in a miscarriage of justice.”
Lemons said that Hoffman will testify as to why the DNA testing performed by his laboratory leads him to conclude that the infant born to the victim in this case is the child of Diaz.
Diaz is charged with three counts of enticement of a minor and one count of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.
According to the indictment, between Aug. 1, 2010 and Sept. 30, 2010, Diaz traveled to the CNMI for the purpose of engaging in illicit sex with the minor.
