OAG: Torres does not come with clean hands

Ralph DLG Torres

The Office of the Attorney General wants to depose former governor Ralph DLG Torres in order to find out how much public funds were used to pay his four attorneys who represented him while he was still the governor.

OAG chief solicitor Robert Glass Jr. has filed a motion before the Superior Court, asking it to order a deposition against Torres in his ongoing petition against the Department of Finance regarding special prosecutor James Kingman’s contract.

Glass says the OAG believes that Torres does not come before the court with clean hands and believes a deposition is required to fully ascertain the facts and circumstances of Torres’ procurement of attorneys while he was governor.

Glass explained in his motion that Torres petitioned the court to invalidate the contract between the OAG and the special prosecutor on the grounds that the contract did not conform to the procurement regulations. However, Glass said, Torres himself procured several lawyers during his tenure as CNMI governor.

“Torres sought and procured numerous attorneys and government contracts utilizing the same procurement regulations he now accuses the OAG of violating. In order to bring such a claim, Torres will need to have not himself violated such procurement regulations. While the documents from the Department of Finance and the Office of the Governor may provide some insight into the procurement of his attorneys, there are still many questions that only Torres himself can answer in regards to his procurement and payment of attorneys to represent him and the Office of the Governor in his numerous legal battles over the past years,” Glass said.

Torres currently has four lawyers defending him—Viola Alepuyo, Anthony Aguon, Matthew Holley, and Victorino Torres—and they have been defending him in his criminal case since he was governor.

According to Saipan Tribune archives, Torres, through his defense team, filed a petition for a judicial review of the decision the Department of Finance made in the Kingman case. The DOF and the Office of the Attorney General were named respondents in this matter.

The petition came after Finance Secretary Tracy B. Norita declined to rule or address the merits of Torres’ request that Kingman’s contract with the OAG be declared invalid.

In addition, the agency ruling dismissed Torres’ request finding that the department lacks the authority to issue a declaratory ruling because Kingman’s contract had already been signed.

As relief, Torres is asking the Superior Court to vacate the DOF’s final agency decision 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 is challenging Kingman’s previous contract with the OAG as a special prosecutor in his ongoing criminal case. Torres argues that the contract did not comply with the CNMI’s rules of procurement.

The OAG has since filed a motion to dismiss the petition stating multiple errors on Torres’ part.