Igisomar pleads not guilty to charge of lying during trial

Randy A. Igisomar, a 22-year-old man who was indicted in federal court for allegedly lying during the jury trial of Raymond B. Roberto, pleaded not guilty yesterday.

Igisomar appeared with court-appointed counsel Robert T. Torres at his initial court appearance and arraignment. He is facing charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, and false statement.

Torres did not oppose the U.S. government’s motion for Igisomar’s detention pending his trial, saying that under the federal court’s detention order, it makes Igisomar a detainee.

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona ordered Igisomar’s detention pending trial.

Igisomar was one of three men who bludgeoned to death a school security in 2008 and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

During Roberto’s trial, he testified that Roberto never instructed his friend during a phone conversation to get rid of her cell phone’s SIM card.

In the indictment, one count of perjury relates to his Sept. 10, 2014, testimony when he made a declaration inconsistent with a prior declaration he made while under oath in a grand jury proceeding.

Specifically, on May 6, 2014, while appearing as a witness under oath before the federal grand jury, Igisomar testified that, while detained at the Department of Corrections, he spoke in Chamorro to a friend on the phone and that Roberto told him to tell his friend to get rid of her phone number. Igisomar stated that he told his friend to get rid of the number because Roberto instructed him to tell it to her right there.

However, during his testimony during Roberto’s trial on Sept. 10, 2014, Igisomar stated that his conversation on the phone with his friend was in English. Igisomar also stated that Roberto only asked his (Igisomar’s) friend if she can call her sister in Guam to contact his (Roberto’s) lawyers and the private investigators.

Igisomar also testified that he did not hear Roberto telling his friend to throw a cell phone.

In an interview with an FBI special agent last Aug. 8, Igisomar allegedly represented that when he previously stated that Roberto told him to tell his friend to discard a certain cell phone or SIM card, he had been “mistaken.”

Igisomar knew that his representation was false and fraudulent that his purpose in claiming to have been “mistaken” was to obstruct justice, according the indictment.

A separate indictment was also filed against Roberto’s other witness, Richard Sullivan Benavente, 44. The indictment charged Benavente with three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. On Wednesday, Benavente pleaded not guilty.

On Monday, a federal court jury unanimously acquitted the 41-year-old Roberto of all charges that he enticed three minor girls to engage in prostitution and tampered a witness while he was in jail.