PSS commissioner pleads not guilty

Education Commissioner Dr. Rita A. Sablan has entered a not guilty plea to traffic charges for alleged misuse of a government vehicle.

At an arraignment on Thursday, Sablan, through counsel Brien Sers Nicholas, waived the reading of the charges in the traffic citation.

Sablan, through Nicholas, also waived advisement of her constitutional rights and entered a plea of not guilty.

Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja set a status conference for May 14, 2015, at 1:30pm and ordered all parties to appear at the hearing.

Assistant attorney general Emily Cohen represented the government at the hearing.

According to court records, during the first hearing of the case last Feb. 19, attorney Tiberius Mocanu appeared as counsel for the Public School System but Sablan was not present. Cohen represented the government.

Naraja then set the matter for arraignment on March 5, 2015, at 9am. The Marshal Service Division was ordered to serve a copy of the order on Sablan.

Last Feb. 24 at 1:40pm, Deputy Marshal Benusto M. Lisua served Naraja’s order and minute order to a staff of PSS at the Central Office in Susupe.

Police Sgt. Anthony Macaranas issued the traffic citation to the 58-year-old Sablan last Jan. 15 in the parking lot of Twins Supermarket in Lower Navy Hill

Macaranas allegedly observed that Sablan was driving a tinted white Honda four-door sedan leased to PSS.

The officer also found out that the car has no government markings on the door and a regular license plate was used instead of a government plate, in violations of the Government Vehicle Act.

Department of Public Safety spokesman Travis Hurst said Macaranas had previously stopped a car being driven by Sablan and he exercised his discretionary authority by advising the commissioner to bring her PSS-assigned vehicle into compliance with the law, without issuing her a traffic citation.

Hurst said upon spotting the same vehicle last February without the proper modifications as previously advised, Macaranas advised Sablan of the violations and gave her traffic citation.

DPS Commissioner James Deleon Guerrero, in a letter last January, advised all CNMI government department heads of the impending enforcement activities and gave each of the departments ample time to come into compliance with the statute.

“The Commonwealth Code 1CMC-7406 clearly outlines the rules that apply to all government vehicles, including leased vehicles,” Hurst said.