Jury trial of Ogumoro starts

The jury trial of former Department of Public Safety deputy commissioner Ambrosio T. Ogumoro commenced yesterday in Superior Court for his alleged role in shielding then-attorney general Edward Buckingham from being served with penal summons in 2012.

Associate Judge David A. Wiseman completed yesterday morning the selection of eight jurors, including two alternates.

Wiseman ordered the eight jurors to come back in court today, Wednesday.

Wiseman ordered the lawyers of the parties to appear in court today, Wednesday, at 8:30am, for a hearing on Ogumoro’s motion to dismiss some charges.

Ogumoro filed the motion on Friday, or one business day before the trial.

There are only 11 remaining charges against Ogumoro after Wiseman on Thursday dismissed four charges upon the request of special prosecutor George Hasselback.

The remaining charges are one count of conspiracy to commit theft of services, six counts of misconduct in public office, one count of theft of services, one count of conspiracy to commit obstruction justice: Interference with a law enforcement officer or witness, obstructing justice: interference with a law enforcement officer or witness, and criminal coercion.

Last Jan. 4, Hasselback moved to dismiss without prejudice the charges of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice: Interference with service of process, two counts of misconduct in public office, and one count of obstructing justice: Interference with service of process. Wiseman granted the motion.

Ogumoro, through counsel Edward C. Arriola, filed on Friday a motion joining the dismissal of the four charges but with prejudice or cannot be re-filed anymore.

Ogumoro also filed a motion for further dismissal of five other charges because they also all relate to obstructing justice by interfering with service of invalid process.

Arriola noted that in Buckingham’s case, Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo held that the penal summons to be served and eventually served upon Buckingham was invalid because it was not signed by a judge, but rather by a clerk who was not an “official authorized to issue process.”

Therefore, Arriola said, Govendo dismissed all charges with respect to “obstructing justice by interfering with service of process” and “misconduct in office relating to the same.”

Arriola said as correctly argued by Buckingham, “it is impossible for Buckingham to have obstructed service of process because the penal summons was invalid.”

Therefore, Arriola said Ogumoro moves to dismiss the five charges in that such counts are charges essentially related to obstructing justice by interfering with service of process and the accompanying conspiracy, and misconduct in public office.

In the government’s opposition to the motion, Hasselback said the motion has been filed approximately 37 days late without any explanation for this tardiness.

“This court should not only refuse to entertain this motion, but it should seriously consider sanctions against both defendant and his attorney,” Hasselback said.

Ogumoro is the only remaining defendant in this case.

Last Jan. 13, former Commonwealth Ports Authority police chief Jordan Kosam entered a guilty plea while the charges against his co-defendant, former CPA police captain John T. Rebuenog, were dismissed.

Kosam signed a plea deal with the government and pleaded guilty to one count of misconduct in public office.

Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja sentenced the 43-year-old Kosam to one-year imprisonment, but suspended the imposition of the sentence.

Naraja placed Kosam on three years of supervised release.

Wiseman dismissed the charges against Rebuenog after special prosecutor Hasselback moved to drop the charges.

The charges against three other co-defendants were already resolved. Former governor Benigno R. Fitial pleaded guilty, while Buckingham was convicted during a bench trial. The charges against Fitial’s former personal driver and bodyguard Jermaine Joseph W. Nekaifes were dismissed.