Judge says Benavente lied during Roberto’s trial

The federal court has determined that former firefighter Richard Sullivan Benavente lied in his testimony at the jury trial of Raymond Roberto, who was accused but later acquitted of enticing minors to have sex in exchange for cash.

In a written order on Wednesday, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona said all the evidence show that Benavente gave false testimony at the Roberto trial when he said that he used the phone number ending in -3443 from mid-June to July 2013.

Manglona said the text messages are consistent with Roberto using that number and that Benavente’s claim that the messages came from him makes no sense.

By lying at the Roberto trial, Benavente breached his plea agreement with the U.S. government, the judge said.

A federal grand jury indicted Benavente in 2013 on several counts of sexual exploitation of a child. He cooperated with authorities and entered into a plea deal with the U.S. government.

In February 2014, Benavente pleaded guilty to a count of sexual exploitation of a child. He has yet to be sentenced.

In September that year, Roberto went to trial on charges of coercing and enticing some of the same minors that Benavente had sexually exploited.

At the trial, the prosecution presented evidence that Roberto used a prepaid SIM card with a number ending in -3443 to contact the girls for sex.

Testifying for the defense, Benavente testified that, from mid-June to July of 2013, he in fact used the -3443 SIM card to contact the minors. He said he used the card after June 12 and continuing through July 19, the day of his arrest.

Roberto was later acquitted.

Because of Benavente’s testimony, the U.S. government asked the court to find him in breach of his plea agreement for allegedly lying about his use of the -3443 SIM card during the Roberto trial.

Benavente insisted that he told the truth.

The judge, however, disagreed. Manglona said the record of text messages as well as the weight of the other evidence show that Roberto used the -3443 number, not Benavente.

“Because the evidence makes it more likely than not that Benavente lied at the Roberto trial, the court will grant the government’s motion to find Benavente in breach of his plea agreement,” Manglona said.

The judge pointed out that the text message records are consistent with Roberto using -3443 and that the text messages are inconsistent with Benavente using that number.

Manglona said Benavente’s claim that he used -3443 conflicts with other information he previously gave investigators. Other evidence outside the texts themselves shows that Roberto used -3443, she added.