Scoggins: Prosecution cheated at trial

Stacey Lani Laniyo wants a new trial.

Her lawyer, Mark Scoggins, argue that his client did not receive a fair trial, and accused the prosecution of cheating throughout the hearing, ultimately robbing Laniyo of her right to a fair trial.

Scoggins has filed in Superior Court a motion for a new trial for Laniyo, who was found guilty of one count of child abuse over the death of a 3-year-old child.

According to Scoggins, a new trial is warranted because of the “pervasive, egregious, intentional, unethical, and irresponsible prosecutorial misconduct” that collectively robbed Laniyo of her right to due process under the U.S. and CNMI constitutions.

“A citizen of the Commonwealth sits in jail at this moment because the prosecutor in her trial, hell-bent on obtaining a conviction irrespective of anything else, willfully and intentionally trampled over the citizen’s constitutional right to a fair trial. [She], at a bare minimum, deserves a new trial,” he said.

Scoggins alleged that the lead prosecutor in the case, assistant attorney general Coleen St. Clair, engaged in egregious misconduct from start to finish, going as far as to call on a witness to testify about events she did not have personal knowledge of.

Mark Scoggins

“The single most damaging witness testified that Laniyo had punched the 3-year-old in the face and split his lip even though the witness had zero personal knowledge of the alleged incident. The prosecutor knew this and presented this inadmissible evidence anyway,” he said.

In addition, Scoggins said, the evidence against Laniyo was weak and there was no real evidence of abuse beyond scratches on the child’s buttocks. The only witness who testified to actual physical abuse, Scoggins added, admitted to having no personal knowledge of the incident—the punch that caused the split lip.

“The only witness who testified to actual physical contact between Laniyo and the victim had no personal knowledge, or otherwise testifying to events that allegedly happened outside the first half of March when the alleged child abuse incident happened. Nobody else saw anything. The prosecution’s evidence amounted to three points: Trust us the injuries were much worse than they look in the photos; if you use your imagination, you can see the bruising; and we have other photos much worse, we just did not show them to you,’” he said.

Last June 24, a six-person Superior Court jury a unanimously issued a guilty verdict against Laniyo for one charge of child abuse for the death of the 3-year-old boy.

Following the reading of the verdict, Scoggins told Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph Camacho that he would be filing a motion for a new trial, and he would be making a request with the Supreme Court to grant a stay, or temporarily suspend, the verdict.