Ex-FBI special agent testifies in ongoing trial of DOC officer

A former Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent testified yesterday as the defense’s expert witness in the ongoing Superior Court bench trial of Corrections Officer Ray Anthony Maratita Camacho, who is facing charges for beating up an inmate at the Department of Corrections.

Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo allowed attorney Colin Thompson, counsel for Camacho, to call out of order the defense’s expert witness, Frank Ishizaki, as the latter has to return to Guam.

Shown with one of the video footages of the incident that happened at DOC on April 1, 2016, Ishizaki observed that the alleged victim, Ryan Cavalear, was restrained or handcuffed from the back.

Ishizaki said the way Camacho and Corrections Officer Admisen Dasio Haddy were holding Cavalear in the arms was not appropriate.

“I don’t think you want to dislocate the shoulder,” Ishizaki said, adding that if the officers could convince Cavalear to walk as he was already handcuffed, it would be not necessary to hold the arms.

The expert witness said carrying a handcuffed person would only cause more damage to the individual.

Ishizaki said in the video shown him, he is not sure if Cavalear was resisting but there was a commotion.

“There is no audio so we have to depend on other people to tell on what happened,” the former FBI special agent said.

He observed in the footage that Camacho’s right hand was hitting Cavalear’s face, but that the hand motion appears slow.

Ishizaki said it’s only Camacho and Haddy who can explain what Camacho was doing.

He said it could be that Camacho was avoiding Cavalear’s head from hitting the steel door.

Ishizaki said he does not see a violation of DOC policy if Camacho was only trying to stop Cavalear’s face from hitting the door.

On cross-examination, Ishizaki said the use of force against a detainee needs a justification to apply it.

The expert witness said once a detainee is handcuffed, there is no need to inflict pain on him.

He said an officer can inflict pain on a detainee to achieve compliance with an instruction.

Ishizaki said an officer should care when an inmate says he has injury by inflicting no pain at all.

After Ishizaki’s testimony, assistant attorney general Matthew Baisley, counsel for the government, resumed calling their witnesses.

When Saipan Tribune left the courtroom yesterday late afternoon, Corrections Sgt. Joaquin Sablan was still on the witness stand. Sablan was the shift commander when the alleged beating happened.