Man gets 30-day prison term for fruit bats poaching

The federal court has imposed a 30-day prison sentence on a former employee of the Rota Mayor’s Office Division of Fish & Wildlife who pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to poach on a breeding colony of threatened Mariana fruit bats in 2008 on Rota.

At a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona ordered that after serving his sentence, Janry A. Santos shall serve six months of supervised release.

Santos was given credit for four days of time served. He was required to perform 50 hours of community service and pay a $10 special assessment fee.

Manglona allowed Santos to self-surrender to the custody of the U.S. Marshal on June 19 at 9am.

Assistant U.S. attorney Garth Backe recommended a sentence of two weeks imprisonment with credit for time served, leaving 11 days to serve.

Attorney Robert T. Torres, counsel for Santos, recommended a probation sentence and community service.

In Santos’ sentencing memorandum, Torres said the defendant’s case is a classic example of following the leader or to an extent, “blinding[ly] follow[ing] your elders.”

Torres said that in the early morning of Nov. 1, 2008, older family members asked Santos to go hunting for fruit bats in the Sumac area. Although Santos knew that fruit bats were a protected and an endangered specie, he agreed to join the large hunting party, Torres said.

The lawyer said Santos approached the colony and he recalled squeezing off two shots of a .410 gauge shotgun given by his uncle, David A. Santos.

Torres said the hunting trip resulted in the decimation and destruction of a fruit bat roosting colony in Sumac.

Torres said the other persons charged for this hunting trip were Santos’ uncles, David Santos and Adrian A. Mendiola, and his cousin, Albert Taitano.

Torres said it is true that no one family member or uncle forced or coerced Santos to join the hunt or shoot the gun.

“But it is true that he did not say no to family members having him participate in something he knew was wrong to do, especially since he was working for the Division of Fish and Wildlife, Rota at the time,” Torres said.

The lawyer said Santos understood that his actions devastated the fruit bat roosting colony and does not wish to commit the same act.

“As a result of his action, it has affected him to the point of depression. He has never repeated what he did,” Torres said.

Santos pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to take a threatened species as part of a plea deal. As part of the deal, the other indictment charging Santos with one count of false statement to a government agency was dropped.

The Nov. 1, 2008, poaching incident led to the indictment of retired police lieutenant Adrian Mendiola, former Rota customs officer Albert A. Taitano, and former Division of Fish and Wildlife staff David A. Santos.

In 2011, Mendiola was found guilty of unlawful possession of a threatened wildlife, but not guilty of unlawful receipt or acquisition of threatened wildlife. He was slapped with a 90-day prison term.

Last month, Taitano and David Santos pleaded guilty to a count of conspiring to unlawfully take and transport a threatened species—a misdemeanor offense.

Last March, the federal court imposed a 30-day jail term on Taitano and David A. Santos.