Judge Manglona declines to recuse herself from handling Guanlao case

Federal judge Ramona V. Manglona has declined attorney Stephen Woodruff’s suggestion that she recuse herself from presiding over a lawsuit filed by his client.

In an order on Monday, Manglona, who is chief judge of U.S. District Court for the NMI, said that Woodruff was disbarred from practicing law in CNMI courts in 2013, yet four years later he is still permitted to practice in the U.S. District Court for the NMI, in which she (Manglona) is the only district judge.

Woodruff’s client, Amalia Abo Guanlao, has challenged an order for her removal from the CNMI.

Manglona pointed out in the first seven months of Guanlao’s case—before the U.S. government’s motion to disqualify Guanlao’s counsel, Woodruff—Guanlao did not object to having her case decided by Manglona.

The judge noted that Guanlao did not object last August when she heard the U.S. government’s motion to dismiss, even though the court’s decision could have ended her case unfavorably.

And yet, Manglona said, Guanlao did not suggest at that time that she recuse herself because of a personal bias against Woodruff that might express itself in a bad outcome for his client.

“With knowledge of all these facts, it is hard to see how a reasonable person would question the undersigned’s partiality in this matter,” said Manglona in her order.

Guanlao, a Filipino mother who has been in the CNMI for 23 years now, has two minor U.S. citizen children, but was deemed by U.S. Immigration to be removable from the CNMI.

Aside from then-U.S. Department of Homeland Secretary Jeh Johnson, Guanlao also sued several U.S. immigration officials.

Manglona has stayed Guanlao’s removal while the court hears her petition.

Last Jan. 12, the respondents, through the U.S. Department of Justice, filed a motion to disqualify Woodruff, who has been disbarred from practice in CNMI courts. A disciplinary case against Woodruff is pending in the district court to determine whether to impose reciprocal discipline on Woodruff.

The respondents allege that Woodruff’s CNMI disbarment became final months ago, when he failed to petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court. The respondents allege that Woodruff misrepresented the status of his CNMI case and failed to report the imposition of discipline in other jurisdictions, and that these failures make him unfit to continue representing Guanlao.

Manglona’s husband, John A. Manglona, is a justice of the CNMI Supreme Court. John Manglona was one of the justices who temporarily suspended Woodruff while his CNMI disciplinary case was pending and subsequently denied Woodruff’s appeal of the disbarment order.

Because the reciprocal discipline decision turns on whether the CNMI courts afforded Woodruff due process, Judge Manglona recused herself from the district court’s reciprocal discipline case.

In her order on Monday, Manglona said the CNMI courts’ conduct in disbarring Woodruff is not at issue in respondents’ motion to disqualify Woodruff.