Probable cause found to charge man of sexually assaulting 1-year-old girl

Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho yesterday found probable cause to warrant the filing of charge against Austin Kosam, a 22-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting a one-year-old girl.

At a preliminary hearing, Camacho found probable to believe that the crime of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree was committed and that Kosam may have committed the said offense.

Camacho ordered Kosam to answer the charge.

The judge noted that assistant attorney general Shannon Foley was prepared in making sure that all the elements of the offense were presented as evidence.

Foley called to the witness stand veteran police detective Catherine B. Pangelinan, who narrated to the court the circumstances that led to Kosam’s arrest.

Camacho said there are four different categories or degrees of sexual abuse of a minor.

He said each degree of sexual abuse of a minor has different elements or sub-parts.

The judge said to establish probable cause for sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, the government must present evidence of the date of the offense, the offense happened in the CNMI, Kosam was 18 years or older, the allege victim was under 16 years old, there was sexual penetration however slight of the allege victim’s private part, that defendant was a member of the household or that the allege victim was aware of defendant’s position of authority, and that the allege victim must have knowledge of that position of authority.

Camacho said the government was not charging Kosam under the sub-section of position of authority.

Foley moved to dismiss without prejudice the other charge—assault and battery—because it is a lesser included of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree. It means that it is not necessary to charge assault and battery as such charge is already included in the sexual abuse of a minor.

Assistant public defender Michael Sato, counsel for Kosam, did not object to the dismissal. Camacho granted the dismissal without prejudice.

After the hearing, Kosam was remanded into the custody of the Department of Corrections. Arraignment will be on July 18 at 9am.

Police arrested Kosam in Kannat Tabla last July 5 for allegedly sexually assaulting the baby last July 4. The court imposed a $20,000 cash bail.

Police said the 1-year-old girl was crying in pain as her private part was swollen.

In the footnote of his order yesterday, Camacho compared the issue of the government’s preparedness in Kosam’s case to the case against former Department of Public Safety commissioner James C. Deleon Guerrero and former police officer Jesse S. Concepcion.

The judge noted that in the case against Deleon Guerrero and Concepcion involving the same charge, during the preliminary hearing the prosecutors failed to completely present all the essential elements of the offense.

Camacho said when the government fails to present all the essential elements at the preliminary hearing, the law requires that the charge be dismissed without prejudice.

Camacho said when a charge is dismissed without prejudice it means that the Office of the Attorney General can re-file the case.

As of yesterday, the judge pointed out, the OAG has not re-filed the charges against Deleon Guerrero and Concepcion.

Camacho found no probable cause as to the charge of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree and other charges against Deleon Guerrero and Concepcion.