OAG succeeds in 3 trial convictions

The Office of the Attorney General’s Criminal Division has concluded three consecutive separate bench trial rulings resulting in convictions in the past few weeks.
In January 2013, a domestic violence case involving Erwin Togawa, who at the time of the offense was an enforcement officer at the Department of Commerce, threatened to kill his girlfriend with a knife as a result of an argument that ensued between the two. At the time of the threat, their toddler daughter was in their presence. The victim reported the crime to DPS the following day, in addition to filing a petition for a temporary restraining order. Additional evidence confirmed that in May 2012, the defendant threatened to run over the same victim and daughter with his car.

The court’s ruling found the defendant guilty and he was convicted of assault and disturbing the peace, with both crimes of domestic violence committed in the presence of their daughter. Assistant attorney general Margo Badawy prosecuted the case on behalf of the CNMI government.

Assistant attorney general Barbara Cepeda prosecuted the second bench trial case involving Nestor Manabat. The defendant was charged with domestic violence that involved his common-law wife. The victim claimed the defendant slapped her face, choked her, and pulled her hair. The victim asserted that the defendant grabbed a machete from a cabinet and threatened her. It was the same machete that six years ago the defendant used and threatened her life with when a spat ensued between the two. The couple’s 11 year-old daughter witnessed the fight.

At the trial, the victim recanted her story on the witness stand. Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja deemed the 11-year-old child as not competent to testify and she was excluded as a witness.

In the end, Naraja found the defendant guilty of assault and battery and disturbing the peace of his common-law wife.

The latest trial that resulted with the maximum of six months’ imprisonment without parole involved disbarred attorney, Antonio M. Atalig. The six-month prison term was handed down by Associate Judge David A. Wiseman after Atalig failed to turn himself in to the Department of Corrections to carry out his sentence in a domestic violence case. The six-month prison term for criminal contempt was recommended by assistant attorney general Heather Barcinas, who prosecuted the case. (OAG)