Ex-cop re-arrested for using ‘ice’

CNMI Court Marshals arrested former police officer Victor Val B. Hocog on Friday after he tested positive for using methamphetamine or “ice.” 
Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja reinstated a previous order imposing a $100,000 cash bail plus other conditions for Hocog’s temporary release.

Hocog, 39, is prohibited from using a controlled substance as part of the bail conditions that the court earlier imposed on him in granting his request to lower his original $100,000 cash bail to $10,000.

Assistant attorney general Margo Brown-Badawy asked the court to forfeit the $10,000 cash bail that Hocog posted.

Part of Hocog’s bail conditions requires him to undergo a weekly drug test. Adult probation officer Simram Simram testified in court during Friday’s revocation hearing that Hocog admitted to using “ice.”

Simram said they called Hocog on Friday afternoon and subjected him to drug test. When the drug test found Hocog positive for using “ice,” court marshals arrested him.

Simram said that Hocog admitted smoking leftover “ice” that was contained in a pipe.

Before the hearing, Hocog’s mother was seen crying while talking to Hocog and the latter’s counsel, assistant public defender Matthew Meyer. The mother, who was speaking in Chamorro, appeared to be berating Hocog.

Police first arrested Hocog on Jan. 27. At the time, he was a police officer 1 assigned with the Department of Patrol Section.

Drug Enforcement Task Force detective Jeffrey Norita stated in his report that members of the CNMI Drug Enforcement Task Force and Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force held two sting operations during which Hocog handed a total of $100 worth of “ice” to the task force’s cooperating source at a poker arcade in As Lito.

Norita said that he and Detective Elias Q. Saralu met and spoke with a cooperating source last Jan. 21 to talk about a police officer who is allegedly active in selling “ice” on Saipan.

Norita said the police officer, who was known by the cooperating source as Val Hocog, was later identified as Police Officer Victor Val Hocog.

At a preliminary hearing in February, Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman found probable to warrant the filing of charges against Hocog for two counts of trafficking of controlled substance and two counts of illegal possession of controlled substance.

Hocog is son of Sen. Victor Hocog of Rota.