Jury trial in license fraud case starts

The prosecution and the defense counsel completed their opening statements yesterday as the jury trial of Bonifacio “Boni” Sagana on driver’s license fraud charges gets underway in the U.S. District Court for the NMI.

The prosecutor, assistant U.S. Attorney Albert Flores Jr., told the jurors that they will be hearing testimonies from the prosecutors’ witnesses throughout the trial: Homeland Security Investigations special agent David West, Bernadita Zata, Diosdado Garcia, and a woman named “Ms. Ayuyu.”

Sagana is accused of allegedly conspiring with others to unlawfully produce an identification document—in this case, a CNMI driver’s license.

According to Flores, Zata paid Sagana $200 for a driver’s license in February 2017 and that Garcia also allegedly paid Sagana $250 for a license in July 2017.

On both times, Flores said that Zata and Garcia did not give Sagana any legal immigration document such as an I-94 that is required for obtaining a driver’s license as they were both undocumented, but still received their licenses.

Flores then said that Ayuyu was a friend to both Sagana and Zata and that Sagana told Ayuyu earlier this year not to say anything about the case after Sagana was charged so that “there are no more problems.”

Flores also said that Sagana has lived on Saipan for the past 30 years, speaks English, and helps other Filipinos with their long-term residency applications and sometimes receive cash donations of $75.

The defense’ counsel, Richard Miller, urged the jury to be skeptical of each witness called to the stand. He said the three elements in the case against Sagana are 1: conspiring to knowingly produce an identification document, 2: without lawful authority, and 3: that the production of that document was in or affected interstate commerce.

Miller said that Sagana is not charged with conspiring to produce a fake I-94. “He is not charged with conspiring to produce a fake federal document. The identification document and the charge that they say that he unlawfully produced or conspired to unlawfully produce is the CNMI driver’s license. And that’s important to remember, because the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that producing Ms. Zata’s 2017 driver’s license was in or affected interstate or foreign commerce.”

Interstate commerce means commerce between one state or territory and another, and foreign commerce means commerce between the U.S. as a whole and some foreign government.

The government’s witness, West, was the first called to the stand and was asked to describe in detail the day that the search warrant on Sagana’s residence in Chalan Kanoa was executed on March 8, 2021.

Photo evidence was then produced and shown to West for confirmation and then to the jurors for examination. Some of the evidence were a photo of Sagana’s car parked outside his residence in Chalan Kanoa, Sagana’s typed up and handwritten-amended statement, Sagana’s Miranda right’s acknowledgement, and Sagana’s and Zata’s I-94 immigration documents that were found in the search.

When Saipan Tribune left the court yesterday morning, the trial was still in session.

The first day of the trial started last July 6 with jury selection. There are 14 jurors in the trial.

According to Saipan Tribune archives, the U.S. District Court for the NMI issued an arrest warrant for Sagana following a grand jury indictment back on Jan. 31, 2022.

Sagana fled the CNMI before he could be arrested and was only taken into custody last May 16, 2022, in Wisconsin.

The charge against Sagana is punishable by up to a maximum sentence of 15 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.