Court dismisses contempt charge vs Torres

Judge Pro Tem Alberto Tolentino has issued an order dismissing the contempt charge filed by the Office of the Attorney General against Gov. Ralph DLG Torres in the ongoing criminal suit filed against him.

Last Tuesday, Tolentino issued multiple orders in the criminal suit filed against Torres. One of the orders issued was an order to grant, in part, and deny, in part, Torres’ motion for the withdrawal or disqualification of the Office of the Attorney General as a prosecutor.

It was in this motion that the judge ordered for the dismissal of the contempt charge against Torres.

Specifically, Tolentino found that chief solicitor J. Robert Glass, the head prosecutor in the criminal case against Torres, may have been exposed to privileged and confidential information that prevents Glass from prosecuting defendant for contempt therefore the charge was dismissed.

“Defendant’s motion to disqualify the OAG is hereby granted in part as the court finds there is an impermissible exposure to privileged and confidential information that prevents Glass from prosecuting defendant for Count 14 [contempt]. Count 14 is hereby dismissed without prejudice,” the order stated.

As for the motion to disqualify Glass from prosecuting Torres for the other 13 charges stated in the complaint, Tolentino found no conflict and denied the governor’s motion.

“By order of the court, defendant’s motion to disqualify the OAG is hereby denied part as there is no conflict preventing chief solicitor Glass from charging and prosecuting defendant for Counts I-XIII as charged in the information,” Tolentino said.

According to the order, the defense previously argued that Glass knew Torres, through his counsels, were making Open Government Act requests, a procedure being utilized in defendant’s separate case.

Defendant further argued that Glass could have only known about defendant’s other Open Government Act requests if he had information from the representation of defendant in the separate case and therefore the screen, a procedure done by Attorney General Edward Manibusan to ensure Glass was not exposed to privileged and confidential information on Torres’ other civil cases, was ineffective.

Tolentino found that evidence previously presented in court indicated it was likely Glass was exposed to privileged information regarding non-appearance to a legislative subpoena as charged in Count 14 – Contempt.

“[Torres’ counsel] Gil Birnbrich testified to exchanging emails regarding Glass’ personal review of the Legislative Subpoena. Manibusan gave a legal opinion in court as to a theory of prosecution of Count 14 in the information that was based upon the contents of the Legislative Subpoena. Whether Glass merely read a draft of the Legislative Subpoena for grammatical edits or had any input on the final product, he had exposure to the confidential and privileged legal theories contained within the Legislative Subpoena in August 2020. The court finds Glass is disqualified from prosecuting defendant for contempt based upon exposure to confidential information in the Legislative Subpoena LSR previous to the waiver of privilege in court,” the judge said.

Tolentino stated that it may be proper for Count 14 to be brought in a separate case by a properly screened assistant attorney General.

“The parties may also stipulate to a special prosecutor to handle Count 14. However, Count 14 as charged in the Information cannot continue in the present case brought by Glass,” Tolentino said.