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Jury selection in Roberto trial now on its fifth day
The jury selection in the federal jury trial of former acting CNMI Division of Fish and Wildlife director Raymond Borja Roberto enters its fifth day today—said to be the longest jury selection in the CNMI so far.
With no jury empanelled yesterday, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona will resume the selection process at 8am today.
There are 57 prospective jurors left, Saipan Tribune learned.
As this developed, Manglona yesterday granted the U.S. government’s motion to prevent Roberto from submitting some exhibits due to discovery violation and notice of alibi violation.
Manglona prevented Roberto from introducing his passport and other items in his exhibit list.
The items include travel authorization from Saipan to American Samoa from March 7, 2013, to March 15, 2013, Roberto’s boarding passes, his United Mileage Plus statement, agenda of the 48th meeting of the Western Pacific Fisheries Information Network in American Samoa, and others.
Assistant U.S. attorney Rami S. Badawy asked the court to preclude Roberto from introducing these documents because Roberto failed to disclose those items until after 12pm, Tuesday, the second day of trial, despite the prosecution’s prior requests for reciprocal discovery and demands for notice of alibi.
In Roberto’s opposition to the motion, attorney David J. Lujan said the evidence that the U.S. government wants to hide from the jury shows that the defendant was not on Saipan from March 7, 2014, to March 15, 2014.
Lujan said one of the alleged victim alleged that Roberto had had sex with her on March 12, 2014, and on March 13, 2014.
“It is clear that the government is more interested in scoring a conviction in complete disregard for the evidence in this case as opposed to serving the ends of justice,” Lujan said.
The indictment alleged that Roberto persuaded three underage girls to have sex with him from March 1, 2013, to July 18, 2013. In the witness tampering case, it was alleged that while Roberto was detained pending trial, he attempted to influence the testimony of an individual on April 24, 2014.
