Torres’ motion to reconsider Kingman admission is denied

The CNMI Supreme Court has denied former governor Ralph DLG Torres’ request to reconsider the admission granted special prosecutor James Robert Kingman to participate in prosecuting the case against him.

The Supreme Court issued yesterday its order on Torres’ request for reconsideration regarding special prosecutor Kingman’s pro hac vice (or “for this purpose only”) admission to represent the Office of the Attorney General in its ongoing case against Torres.

According to the order, the high court found that Torres lacks standing to even challenge Kingman’s admission to begin with.

“It is sound policy to permit opposing litigants to inform us of problems with a pro hac vice admission that were not visible on the face on the application. We reject contention that the motion to reconsider should be dismissed for lack of standing,” states the order.

Ralph DLG Torres and James Robert Kingman

In addition, the court found no material deficiencies in the application that would warrant the revocation of Kingman’s admission to practice pro hac vice in this case.

Back in March 2023, OAG chief solicitor J. Robert Glass Jr. applied for Kingman’s pro hac vice admission to act as a special prosecutor in CNMI v. Ralph Anthony Deleon Guerrero Torres.

The application explained that Kingman “is a practitioner in Texas with a long history of prosecutorial experience, including public corruption and white-collar crime” and stated he would serve as a special prosecutor.

The application also contained Kingman’s certificate of good standing in Texas and indicated that he would associate with the Office of the Attorney General as local counsel.

On March 6, the high court issued an order admitting Kingman pro hac vice.

Torres learned of the admission through media reports and filed an Open Government Act request with the Office of the Attorney General for documents related to Kingman.

The OAG responded to Torres’ request and made documents pertaining to Kingman’s pro hac vice admission available for inspection.

On April 26, Torres filed a motion to reconsider the order, citing four grounds for revoking Kingman’s admission: The Commonwealth did not serve Torres with a notice of the pro hac vice application; the application failed to articulate why the OAG requires the attorney’s representation before Commonwealth courts; the application failed to comply with a sworn affidavit requirement; and pro hac vice was allegedly not the appropriate admissions rule for a special prosecutor in a criminal case.