Roberto’s brother arrested for alleged sexual abuse of minor girl

Police arrested yesterday and on Monday night two men who allegedly sexually abused two minor girls in separate incidents on Saipan.

Police served yesterday in Chalan Kiya an arrest warrant to Andres B. Roberto, 49, for sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree, assault and battery, and disturbing the peace.

Police also served on Monday night an arrest warrant in Kagman 3 to Kevin Jason Kaipat, 29, for the same charges.

At a hearing yesterday, Superior Court Associate Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio imposed a $30,000 cash bail each for Roberto and Kaipat.

Preliminary hearing for Roberto will be on May 2 at 9am, while for Kaipat it will be on May 3 at 1:30pm.

Kim-Tenorio said Roberto will be allowed to use the phone at the Department of Corrections to try and find an attorney to represent him in the case.

Roberto is a loan analyst at Express Financial.

Roberto is the brother of former CNMI Division of Fish and Wildlife official Raymond B. Roberto, who in September 2014, was acquitted by a federal jury of charges that he enticed three minor girls to engage in prostitution and tampered a witness while he was in jail.

Chief public defender Douglas Hartig was appointed as counsel for Kaipat. Acting chief prosecutor Barbara Cepeda appeared for the government in both cases.

In the case against Andres Roberto, the defendant allegedly handed $60 for a fundraiser to a 14-year-old girl, then hugged her, kissed her on the mouth, squeezed her breast, and rubbed her butt in the back of a house in the evening of April 19.

The girl pushed Roberto away, threw the money back at him, and ran into the house.

Police said because of the incident, the girl was so traumatized that her mother once saw her in possession of a knife on her bed, as she wanted to kill herself. The girl would feel nervous every time she sees an older man and when at school she was once found shaking inside a bathroom.

The girl cried when she told her father about the incident the following day after she came home from bible study.

Police Detective Kintoki stated in her report that the investigation started last Thursday when personnel from the Division of Youth Services reported the incident.

In Kaipat’s case, the defendant allegedly sexually abused a 13-year-old girl twice in Dandan and in Kagman last year.

Kintoki said the investigation began last Oct. 21 after the Department of Public Safety received a call about a sexual abuse of a minor girl.

Kintoki said during her interview last Oct. 23, the girl stated that the first incident happened at a house in Dandan after Typhoon Soudelor struck Saipan in August 2015.

Kintoki said according to the minor, she was sleeping when Kaipat started massaging her feet and thighs. When Kaipat’s hands moved closer to her private part, she covered herself with a blanket. Kaipat then stopped.

The second incident happened inside a tent that was given by the American Red Cross at a house in Kagman between 12am and 2am last Sept. 8.

The girl said she was sleeping when Kaipat started massaging her legs and touching her private part.

The girl said she got up and slept near her sisters. She said she was scared to scream for fear that Kaipat would do something worst to her.

The girl later informed her sister and her relative about what happened.

Kintoki said she interviewed the girl’s relative last April 21, who disclosed that the girl was crying when she was telling her about what Kaipat did to her.

Apparently, when Kaipat’s girlfriend confronted him about the incidents, the suspect admitted.

The girlfriend allegedly did not call the police and instead told Kaipat to stop doing his “bad habit.”