Ex-Rota official Toves not guilty

A Superior Court jury on Rota handed down a not guilty verdict yesterday against former Rota Finance Procurement and Supply acting administrator Tilford S. Toves.

Saipan Tribune learned that after deliberating since Wednesday night, the six jurors reached a unanimous verdict yesterday at 2:45pm, finding Toves not guilty of conspiracy to commit trafficking of a controlled substance.

Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho, who decided on the misdemeanor charge, also found the defendant not guilty of attempted illegal possession of controlled substance.

“Mr. Toves, you are now a free man,” Camacho told the defendant.

Toves burst into tears after hearing the verdict. His family members clapped and cried in jubilation.

Before rendering his verdict on the charge of attempted illegal possession of a controlled substance, Camacho discussed the evidence presented during the four-day trial.

Camacho said that based on the evidence presented in court, the government’s case against Toves appeared doomed from the start.

Camacho found the authorities’ informant, a Northern Marianas College employee, not credible.

The judge said the NMC employee claims that Toves, whom he does not know very well, just called him out of the blue and asked him to hand-carry “ice” to Rota.

Camacho said that, in December 2014, then-chief prosecutor Brian Flaherty filed an amended information containing the charges in this trial.

Camacho said that Chief Prosecutor Leonardo Rapadas was put in a very difficult position to prove a crime that was incorrectly charged.

The judge noted that Rota Department of Public Safety police officer Francis Manglona testified that Toves never touched or even tried to reach for the “ice.”

Camacho said the video taken from Manglona’s phone clearly shows that Toves had his hands in his pocket, and at one point handed his cellphone to a Rota Resort employee and then to Berlinda Flawau.

Camacho said Toves never made any physical movement to possess the “ice” at the Rota airport.

The judge pointed out that what is clearly on the record is that the NMC employee was asked by Toves to hand-carry the “ice” from Saipan to Rota.

Camacho said that Toves’ unredacted confession shows that he asked the NMC employee to hand-carry the “ice” from Saipan to Rota.

He said even the video at the Rota airport shows that Toves was asking the Rota Resort staff to talk to Flawau to give him (Toves) the package containing the “ice.”

“All these are evidence of the crime of solicitation. It is not the crime of attempt. There is a difference,” the judge pointed out.

Camacho said if the Office of the Attorney General had charged Toves with the crime of solicitation of the illegal possession of a controlled substance, the court would be convinced that the prosecution has proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Camacho said because then-chief prosecutor Flaherty incorrectly filed the crime of attempt, the court finds that the government has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that that crime occurred.

The trial began on Monday. Rapadas called 10 witnesses. Assistant public defender Matthew Meyer, counsel for Toves, did not call any witness.

After the prosecution rested its case on Wednesday, Camacho granted Meyer’s motion to acquit Toves on a charge of restricted use of government vehicle.

Police officers arrested Toves and then-Commonwealth Health Center administrative staff Berlinda Flawau in June 2014 for alleged conspiracy to commit trafficking of “ice” on Rota.

The two’s arrest came about after police discovered, through a confidential source, that Flawau allegedly sent a package that contained 20 baggies of “ice” from Saipan to Toves on Rota on June 11, 2014. Officers allegedly seized $1,000 worth of “ice” during the operation.