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Defendant who failed to appear at hearing arrested
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Posted on Nov 08 2011
By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter
Reporter
Federal agents served yesterday morning the bench warrant issued by U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona against a defendant in a civil case who failed to appear at a hearing.
Herman C. Santos was taken to court at 11:05am.
Attorney F. Matthew Smith, counsel for Commonwealth Development Authority that is suing Santos, asked the court to amend the previous order to reflect an increase in Santos’ monthly payments to CDA.
Manglona ordered Santos to pay $125 per month for the next 30 months in order to cover arrears.
Smith requested for a review hearing to be set in six months.
The judge denied the request and stated that CDA shall monitor Santos’ payments.
Manglona ordered Santos’ release from custody.
Attorney Mark Scoggins, counsel for CDA, requested the court to issue the bench warrant against Santos for not showing up at a scheduled hearing.
Thursday’s show cause hearing was set for Santos to explain why he should not be held in contempt for failing to make regular monthly payments as the court had ordered.
Attorney F. Matthew Smith, co-counsel of Scoggins for CDA, said in his declaration that Santos made the last payment of $100 on July 20, 2011.
Smith said that, on Jan. 10, 2006, following an auction sale of mortgaged property, the district court entered a deficiency judgment against Santos, Ricardo C. Castro and Maria C. Castro in the amount of $7,191.45 plus interest at 9 percent per annum.
Smith said that Santos was ordered to pay $100 per month until the deficiency judgment was paid in full.
