Justice Inos suspends proceedings in rape case

The CNMI Supreme Court has issued an order suspending the Superior Court proceedings in the case of George Norris Langu Jr., an 18-year-old student accused of breaking into a neighbor’s house and raping a 16-year-old girl.

Associate Justice Perry B. Inos said the government filed last Wednesday, Oct. 7, a motion to stay the trial court proceedings in Langu’s case pending resolution of its petition for a writ of mandamus before the high court.

In an order on Thursday, Inos said given the circumstances, filing a motion to stay in the trial court would be impracticable.

Furthermore, the associate justice said, the high court is unconvinced that resolution of this petition will unduly delay trial because a substantially expedited briefing schedule has been issued.

In the footnote of his order, Inos said the Commonwealth filed its motion to stay after the trial court filed a brief in this matter, which advised that dual proceedings in the trial court and the high court constituted an inefficient use of judicial resources.

Inos said the trial court’s brief requested the high court to remand to the trial court or extend briefing by 45 days.

“This court declines to address the trial court’s request because it is not a party to this proceeding,” Inos pointed out.

With the Inos’ order, Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho on Thursday vacated the hearing on the government’s motion for reconsideration set for Friday, Oct. 9, at 1:30pm.

During a preliminary hearing last Sept. 15, citing what he termed as a “loophole” in the law, Camacho dismissed the first-degree sexual assault charge filed against Langu.

Camacho found no probable cause to believe that the crime of sexual assault in the first degree has been committed. He noted that when the Legislature amended the sex crime law, it inadvertently created a loophole.

Camacho, however, found probable cause to believe that Langu committed the other charges: burglary, assault and battery, disturbing the peace, and criminal mischief.

The Office of the Attorney General then filed a motion for reconsideration.

In the motion for reconsideration, the prosecution stated that Camacho’s order “threaten[s] the lives and safety of thousands of CNMI teenagers.”

The OAG also asserted that the judge’s ruling threatens to deter teenagers who are victims of sexual assault from coming forward to submit complaints to the police for fear that such complaints are now legally meritless.

While the motion for reconsideration was supposedly set for a hearing last Friday, the OAG also submitted a petition for writ of mandamus before the high court to avoid losing the government’s ability to challenge the ruling in front of the Supreme Court.

In the petition, the OAG asked the high court to step in “to correct” Camacho’s alleged mistake in dismissing the first-degree sexual assault charge.

Assistant attorney general Matthew C. Baisley asked the high court to immediately issue a writ of mandamus that instructs Camacho to reinstate the sexual assault charge.

Baisley also asked the high court to instruct the trial court that there is no legislative loophole to first-degree sexual assault statute.

“The Commonwealth is free to charge defendants with sexual assault in the first degree, regardless of the victim’s or offender’s age,” he said.