Govt seeks 18-year prison term for Ogumoro

The CNMI government is recommending an 18-year prison term sentence against former Department of Public Safety deputy commissioner Ambrosio T. Ogumoro for his conviction of three felonies and six misdemeanors, while Ogumoro’s counsel is requesting a suspended sentence.

The sentencing of the 57-year-old Ogumoro will be at 1:30pm today, Wednesday, before Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman.

Special prosecutor George Lloyd Hasselback, counsel for the CNMI government, said for his crimes, Ogumoro deserves the harshest punishment.

“He has evidenced no remorse, not even a shred of acceptance of responsibility for the egregious breach of the public trust for which he has been convicted,” Hasselback said in the sentencing recommendation. “This court should send a strong message to the people of the CNMI that no person is beyond the reach of its laws.

The special prosecutor said to permit any leniency for defendant because he was “just following orders” would constitute an odious disregard of the very principles of personal responsibility upon which the entire system of criminal jurisprudence rests.

Hasselback said Ogumoro has demonstrated and continues to demonstrate as evidenced by his statements to Office of Adult Probation officers “an air of arrogance and entitlement that should deeply offend any law-abiding citizen and bring from this court the harshest of censure.”

Attorney Daniel T. Guidotti, counsel for Ogumoro, recommended a sentence of three years, all suspended, plus other conditions that the court deems just.

Guidotti cited Ogumoro’s distinguished service in the U.S. Marine Corps, his services to the CNMI, the nonviolent nature of his actions, and the fact that he was acting on orders from his superior, then-governor Benigno R. Fitial.

Guidotti said Ogumoro was neither the architect, nor the initiator of the plan to assist then-attorney general Edward Buckingham with departing the CNMI without being served with the penal summons.

That distinction, the lawyer said, belongs to Fitial, the man who Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman described as a “screenwriter, producer, and director” of the conspiracy.

“If Fitial was acting as screenwriter, producer, and director, then Mr. Ogumoro was merely an actor on stage,” Guidotti said.

He said Fitial made phone calls and gave direction to Ogumoro, and like a good actor, Ogumoro followed Fitial’s stage direction.

Last Jan. 26, Wiseman announced his verdict finding Ogumoro guilty of seven of nine corruption charges for his role in the shielding of Buckingham from being served with penal summons in August 2012.

Wiseman found Ogumoro guilty of five counts of misconduct in public office, one count of obstructing justice: Interference with a law enforcement officer or witness, and one count of criminal coercion.

A Superior Court jury also rendered a unanimous verdict finding Ogumoro guilty of conspiracy to commit theft of services and theft of services pertaining to the same incident of shielding of Buckingham.

Ogumoro is the last defendant in this case.

Last Jan. 13, former Commonwealth Ports Authority police chief Jordan Kosam entered a guilty plea while the charges against his co-defendant, former CPA police captain John T. Rebuenog, were dismissed.

Kosam pleaded guilty to one count of misconduct in public office. Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja sentenced Kosam to one-year imprisonment, but suspended the imposition of the sentence.

Naraja placed Kosam on three years of supervised release. Wiseman dismissed the charges against Rebuenog after Hasselback moved to drop the charges.

Fitial pleaded guilty, while Buckingham was convicted during a bench trial. Fitial and Buckingham did not serve prison term. The charges against Fitial’s former personal driver and bodyguard Jermaine Joseph W. Nekaifes were dismissed.

Ogumoro has another pending corruption case.