Man gets 27-month prison term for assaulting officer, possession

A man who was convicted of assaulting a federal officer and possessing contraband in prison has been sentenced to 27 months in prison, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release yesterday.

It said that Derik Jonathan Camacho Reyes, 41, Saipan, was sentenced to a 27-month imprisonment term in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. His federal sentence will run consecutive to the sentence Reyes is currently serving by prior order of the CNMI Superior Court.

The court also placed Reyes on three years of supervised release, required him to render 100 hours of community service, and to pay a mandatory $200 special assessment fee. 

According to the USAO news release, Reyes was an inmate at the CNMI Department of Corrections on Feb. 15, 2022.  He was held in a maximum-security section with 22 other inmates, including three federal inmates.  CNMI corrections officers attempted to seize a drug pipe from Reyes after observing suspicious behavior in his cell.  Reyes resisted and attempted to flush the pipe and a small baggie containing methamphetamine down a toilet.  During the struggle, one of the officers hit his head on the corner of Reyes’s cell doorway. The officer was treated at a local hospital for a contusion on his head, and minor chemical burns on his hand from methamphetamine and contaminant residue.

Given there is no federal detention facility in the CNMI, the U.S. Marshals Service contracts with the CNMI for federal prisoners to be housed at the CNMI jail.  As a result, CNMI corrections officers perform a federal function and serve in the capacity of federal employees when the corrections officers care for federal inmates. 

“Acts of violence toward detention facility employees will not be tolerated,” stated Shawn N. Anderson, U.S. Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. “The court’s sentencing order is a strong measure of accountability.  We will continue to pursue cases that improve the safety of these facilities.”

This investigation was led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in partnership with the CNMI Department of Corrections, and prosecuted by Albert S. Flores, Jr., assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of the Northern Mariana Islands. (Saipan Tribune)