‘OAG motion to depose Torres is not supported by CNMI law’

The defense team of former governor Ralph DLG Torres has opposed the Office of the Attorney General’s request that the ex-governor be deposed in the continuation of his petition against the Department of Finance regarding special prosecutor James Kingman’s contract.

In a motion filed before the Superior Court last Tuesday, Torres’ defense team—attorneys Viola Alepuyo, Matthew Holley, Victorino Torres, and Anthony Aguon—said the deposition motion is not supported by Commonwealth law and, in the OAG’s case, may actually be a breach of Rule 1.9 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (duties to a former client), hence the OAG’s motion for deposition should be denied.

The OAG wants to depose Torres in order to find out how much public funds were spent to pay the four attorneys who represented him while he was still the governor.

In Chief Solicitor Robert Glass Jr.’s motion, he says the OAG believes a deposition is required to fully ascertain the facts and circumstances of his procurement of attorneys while he was governor.

However, his defense team says the former governor is a former client of the OAG when he was in office, since the OAG is the legal counsel to the CNMI governor. This, they said, may violate Rule 1.9 of the MRPC, which states that a lawyer who has formerly represented a client shall not later turn around and represent the original opponent.

Furthermore, the defense says the OAG’s motion for a deposition conflicts with Rule 6 of the Commonwealth Rules of Procedure for administrative appeals; the deposition conflicts with Rules 26 and 30 of the Commonwealth Rules of Procedure; the OAG is precluded from raising the “unclean hands” defense for the first time on appeal; the OAG is precluded from contesting the facts alleged in the petitioner’s underlying petition to the Department of Finance; and the court has the power to grant the relief that the petitioner sought before an agency.

Torres has questioned the validity of Kingman’s original contracts with the OAG as a special prosecutor in Torres’s case. Torres has asked the court to find the contract invalid for noncompliance with the Commonwealth’s procurement regulations.

The former governor is also asking to vacate the Department of Finance’s decision to deny his initial complaint on the grounds that the ruling was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and contrary to law.

The defense also wants the court to rule that the special prosecutor’s contract fails to comply with procurement regulations and is therefore void.

Alternatively, Torres asks that the court set aside the DOF’s final agency ruling and remand the matter back to the agency for a decision on the merits of his request for declaratory relief by an independent and unbiased hearing officer.

Torres’ case was initially filed on April 8, 2022, charging him with 12 counts of misconduct in public office, one count of theft, and one count of contempt. Torres has denied the charges.

Superior Court Presiding Judge Roberto C. Naraja, Associate Judges Teresa Kim-Tenorio, Wesley Bogdan, Joseph N. Camacho and Kenneth L. Govendo have recused themselves from the lawsuit for varied conflict of interest reasons.