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SDLLC wants video of Buckingham escort be part of record for appeal
Saipan Development LLC, the contractor of the voided power purchase agreement, wants the video clips when former attorney general Edward T. Buckingham was escorted by a group of policemen at the Saipan International Airport be made part of the record to be transmitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
SDLLC counsel William M. Fitzgerald said it would be appropriate under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure for the U.S. District Court for the NMI to include the video clips that it viewed during SDLLC’s argument or as part of the PowerPoint presentation.
In a motion to supplement record filed Thursday, Fitzgerald said the video clips showing Buckingham using a phalanx of policemen to prevent him from being served with legal process was crucial to SDLLC’s argument that unfair media coverage created extreme prejudice against SDLLC.
“This prejudice was so pervasive among the community that it could logically be assumed that it even reached the Commonwealth Judiciary who are subject to popular vote to retain their positions on the bench,” he said.
Without the video clips, the lawyer said, the Ninth Circuit will not see what truly occurred in the district court and that it appears that Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure was designed to allow the district court to rectify this situation.
Buckingham testified during his trial that upon his arrival at the Saipan International Airport in the early morning of Aug. 4, 2012, he saw then-KSPN2 reporter Tina Sablan and that there were police officers separating her from him.
SDLLC is appealing to the Ninth Circuit U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona’s order that dismissed its lawsuit against the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. over the voided power purchase agreement. SDLLC wants Manglona’s order reversed.
In the June 24 order, Manglona abstained from hearing SDLLC’s lawsuit. She granted CUC’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice. Dismissal with prejudice means SDLLC cannot re-open the case.
