CUC opposes SDLLC request to include Buckingham video clips

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has opposed Saipan Development LLC’s motion to make video clips of former attorney general Edward T. Buckingham being escorted by a group of policemen at the Saipan International Airport be made a part of the record that will be transmitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

CUC legal counsel James S. Sirok said this video was presented as part of SDLLC’s last minute PowerPoint presentation during oral argument.

Sirok said the video was not included with SDLLC’s motion, not filed as an exhibit, and not the subject of any of the court’s rulings being appealed.

Sirok said CUC objects because the video was not properly “filed” under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, and the video was not a “material” part of any finding under the Rules.

SDLLC is the Delaware-based contractor of the controversial $190.8-million power purchase agreement that then-governor Benigno R. Fitial and then-AG Buckingham signed on behalf of CUC.

In SDLLC’s motion to supplement record, SDLLC counsel William M. Fitzgerald said it would be appropriate under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure for the U.S. District Court for the NMI to order supplementing the record by including the video clips that it viewed during SDLLC’s argument or as part of the PowerPoint presentation.

Fitzgerald said this is appropriate because the video clips are crucial to SDLLC’s argument that “unfair media coverage” created extreme prejudice against SDLLC.

Buckingham testified during his trial that upon his arrival at the Saipan airport in the early morning of Aug. 4, 2012, he saw then-KSPN2 reporter Tina Sablan and that there were police officers separating her from him.

In CUC’s opposition, Sirok said a court of appeals cannot authenticate documents as a matter of policy, and therefore an appellate court must be able to assume that any document that is designated part of the record was actually part of the record.

In this case, Sirok pointed out that the video was never “filed” as part of the record of proceedings.

Sirok said the video was not submitted with the motion, and was not even completed until the afternoon of the day before oral argument. The video was also not authenticated, he said.

Citing a previous Ninth Circuit ruling, the lawyer said an exhibit not received in evidence should not be made part of an appellate record.

“While the video did show that the SDLLC matter had been reported on in the community by the media, it did not touch on the main thrust of SDLLC’s argument, which is that the local judiciary was affected by the news coverage,” he said.

Last February, Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo found Buckingham guilty of all public corruption charges except one and sentenced him to 3.5 years in prison, all suspended.

SDLLC is appealing to the Ninth Circuit the decision of U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona to dismiss its lawsuit against CUC over the voided power purchase agreement.

SDLLC is appealing to reverse Manglona’s order.