‘Unaddressed inconsistencies’ led to Roberto acquittal

“Unexplained reasonable doubt and unaddressed inconsistencies” led to the acquittal of 50-year-old Andres B. Roberto Jr., who faced charges of sexually abusing a minor on Saipan.

That’s how Superior Court Presiding Judge Roberto C. Naraja explained his May 11 verdict in the Roberto case. He issued a written judgment in the case Thursday last week.

He had found Roberto not guilty of sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree, assault and battery, and disturbing the peace.

In his written judgment, Naraja said the government presented the court with testimony from a number of people, including the girl.

Naraja said both the girl and Roberto testified and that he found both to be believable. However, “due to the conflicting testimony, it was incumbent on the court to examine the entire case, in all its facets, to determine what doubts, if any, remained,” the judge said.

During closing arguments, Naraja noted, defense counsel Joaquin Torres highlighted a number of inconsistencies in the timeline of events.

More particularly, Naraja said, Roberto testified that at about 9pm on April 19, 2016, he headed home to attend to family matters as his sister-in-law recently passed away. Naraja said this completely puts into question Roberto’s whereabouts during the alleged criminal conduct, which purportedly occurred around 10:30pm on April 19, 2016.

The judge said the government’s cross-examination of Roberto did nothing to explore and/or explain this issue.

“The Commonwealth unquestionably needed to rebut the timeline inconsistencies,” he pointed out.

With the investigative arm of the Department of Public Safety and the Office of the Attorney General’s Investigative Unit, the Commonwealth had the resources and the burden to scrutinize Roberto’s timeline, but it did not, Naraja said.

Further, Naraja said, the prosecution decided not to call any rebuttal witnesses, which left a reasonable doubt unexplained.

There were other inconsistencies, he said, that were also left unaddressed by the prosecution.

Thus, he said, the court is compelled to make a finding of “not guilty” because the Commonwealth failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the charged offenses were committed by Roberto.

Assistant attorney general Jonathan Glass Jr. represented the government at the trial.

Police said Roberto allegedly handed $60 for a fundraiser to the 14-year-old girl, 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, 2016.

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

The next day, the girl told her parents and her aunt about what happened.