Posts
March 31, 2010
Trouble at the AGO
It was on July 2, 2009 that Vicente T. Aldan pointed a handgun at the head of Ellis Barcinas and pulled the trigger several times. Thankfully, the weapon did not go off. Aldan was sentenced to 6 months in prison according to the Saipan Tribune (emphasis added):
KSPN2 reported that 7 attorneys have left the CNMI Attorney General's Office since October when Edward Buckingham became Attorney General. They include Kevin Lynch, Matthew Meyer, Joe Taijeron, Gregory Baka, Katie Busenkell, Joseph Przyuski and George Hasselback. Only four prosecutors remain.
In an interview with KSPN2, Buckingham admitted that George Hasselback left because of the Aldan case.
Regarding Hasselback's resignation Buckingham stated," Let me talk about issues that arose around the same time there was a case where our office had filed a motion to set aside a plea agreement that was not reviewed either with the chief prosecutor or me prior to being filed. Once the chief prosecutor and I reviewed that we made a determination, we made a decision and the decision was it was not a proper motion to file. "It would appear that Mr. Hasselback vigorously disagreeed with that."
Mr. Hasselback put in his resignation immediately following that decision.
The chief prosecutor is Rosemond Santos.
An unnamed source told the Marianas Variety that the AGO is a "toxic place":
The dismal job market situation is the only reason prosecutors at the Attorney General’s Office have not resigned yet, Variety was told.
“If the job market is better, people would leave [the AGO],” said a source, who declined to be identified.
“The AG’s office is a toxic place,” the source added.
Another source said the current prosecutors at the AGO are “serious and dedicated” and “would like to focus on [their] job of implementing the law and in ensuring justice.”
But there is too much “politics” at the AGO, Variety was told.
It’s also “difficult” to work for Buckingham, sources said. They did not elaborate.
Political Interference?
An earlier post, Dangerous Politics, details how it appears that the the Attorney General's Office may have interfered in Vicente T. Aldan's case as a political favor to his well-connected wife, Dolores Aldan, former Department of Corrections Chief who now works as the governor's "special assistant for political affairs." The former DOC chief authorized the release of a federal prisoner to give the governor a massage back in January 2010, while the Attorney General defended the controversy. (Background posts and documents related to the Massage Gate story include a video with Buckingham and Aldan.)
Vicente T. Aldan was arrested in July 2009 for a domestic violence case against his former common law wife, Ellis F. Barcinas. He was accused of holding a gun to her head and pulling the trigger three times. As part of his plea agreement he was ordered to surrender the firearm. Apparently, he did not turn in the gun which is why in February 2010, Mr. Hasselback filed a motion concerning his plea agreement.
On March 24, 2010 the Marianas Variety reported on the court trial involving Aldan:
As part of the plea agreement, Aldan had to surrender the firearm he used against his former domestic partner Ellis F. Barcinas
Last month the Attorney General’s Office filed motion to set aside the plea agreement with Mr. Aldan and open a case against the him.
But yesterday, the AGO informed Superior Court Associate Judge David Wiseman that it was withdrawing its motion.
Wiseman noted that Mr. Aldan poked and pulled the handgun’s trigger many times at his victim.
“I don’t know,” Assistant Attorney General George Hasselback replied to Wiseman’s inquiry on the reason why the government was withdrawing its motion to open the case.
Hasselback told Wiseman that the court “has to take up [the matter] with [his] supervisor.”
Hasselback was referring to Chief Prosecutor Rosemond B. Santos, who did not reply to an e-mail from this reporter.
From the Saipan Tribune (March 24, 2010):
Last Tuesday, Hasselback asked the Superior Court-reportedly at the behest of Santos--to withdraw his earlier motion to set aside the plea agreement in the case against Vicente T. Aldan.Still after over a week of this controversy there is no statement from Santos. What is also revealing is that the decision to withdraw the motion was made without input from Mr. Hasselback.
Hasselback told the court that his supervisor instructed him to withdraw the motion. He said he does not know why Santos asked him to withdraw the motion since he was not involved in the decision-making.
Vicente T. Aldan, husband of former Corrections commissioner Dolores Aldan, had been convicted in November 2009 of assaulting his former wife in July 2009 on Tinian. His conviction was based on a plea bargain he made, and contained several requirements, including the surrender of a firearm.
Hasselback later found out that Aldan has failed to surrender the firearm, prompting him to ask the court to revoke the plea agreement and allow the government to re-file the charging information in the case. He later withdrew the motion at the instruction of Santos.
Attorney General Edward Buckingham admitted that former Department of Corrections commissioner, Dolores Aldan asked him to review her convict-husband's case. He said that he received a call from her on March 16, 2010 and the same day he asked his chief prosecutor Rosemond Santos to review the case. The AG claimed that no "special treatment" was made in the case of Vicente T. Aldan. Buckingham claimed that it was "unfair to the defendant" to file the motion. From the Saipan Tribune (March 27, 2010):
Hasselback later found out that Vicente Aldan failed to surrender the gun, prompting him to ask the court to revoke the plea agreement and allow the government to re-file the charging information in the case.
Buckingham said yesterday that Hasselback's filing of the motion to set aside the plea agreement was a mistake.What seems "unfair" and certainly unjust is that a dangerous prisoner violates a plea agreement and no action is taken!
“When a defendant and their attorney accept a plea agreement, the defendant receives punishment which may include going into custody. What the defendant gets out of the deal is the Commonwealth agreement to drop all other charges in a case,” he said.
He said it is his view that it is very inappropriate to have a defendant serve a substantial part of his sentence and then, while the sentence is still being served, to have the government reopen the case.
It was on July 2, 2009 that Vicente T. Aldan pointed a handgun at the head of Ellis Barcinas and pulled the trigger several times. Thankfully, the weapon did not go off. Aldan was sentenced to 6 months in prison according to the Saipan Tribune (emphasis added):
Associate Judge David A. Wiseman ordered Vicente T. Aldan to serve the six-month imprisonment without parole for assault.The defendant was also ordered not to have any direct or indirect contact with the victim. Vicente T. Aldan's victim, Ellis Barcinas of Tinian wrote an open letter to AG Buckingham that was published in the Saipan Tribune on December 15, 2009 that also suggest political interference in this case. The letter accused DOC Commissioner Aldan and some officers of violating the rights of Ms. Barcinas.
Following a plea agreement, Wiseman placed Aldan on three years of supervised probation and required him to pay a $500 fine plus court costs and probation fees. He was also ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and surrender his firearm.
Wiseman allowed Aldan to begin serving the prison term on Dec. 7, 2009, at 8am at the Department of Corrections.
Dear Attorney General Edward Buckingham:
This is to register a complaint with your office concerning the lack of assistance provided to me as a domestic violence victim by the Office of the Victims Rights Advocate in connection with my complaint of the shooting incident of July 2, 2009, the abuse of authority by the Tinian Department of Public Safety in entering my property without my consent, allowing the defendant to have indirect contact with me and trespass my property, and the abuse of authority by the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections, Ms. Dolores San Nicolas Aldan, and several officers within the Tinian DPS for their involvement in the incident of Nov. 11, 2009.
First, I would like to share some background information on this matter so you can understand my frustration. This issue springs from a July 2, 2009, incident when, after an argument, my domestic partner, Vicente Aldan, pointed a gun at me and pulled the trigger several times. This was a very frightening experience to have someone point a gun at me, menacingly pull of the trigger and not knowing whether I was going to be killed with each pull of the trigger. Thankfully I escaped, barefoot and all but with my life intact.In January 2010, the Marianas Variety published an article which stated that Commissioner Aldan "declined to comment" and the OAG has not responded to an inquiry regarding the complaint of Ms. Barcinas. Why didn't he respond to this victim?
Here is my first complaint: Since I filed the complaint until the case was disposed of by means of a guilty plea by the defendant, I was never contacted by the Victims Rights Office or any advocate in that office. No one contacted me to inform me of my rights under the Victims Rights Act. It was only when someone told me of this Act that I found out that the law requires the office to extend such assistance to me and guarantees many rights to victims like myself. I was never informed of my rights under the Act, I was never extended any assistance, including assistance with creditors, was never notified of any court proceedings, was not told of nor afforded my right to be present at all court proceedings, never informed of my rights to confer with the prosecutor, and did not receive any information regarding the conviction, sentencing, imprisonment, and release of my abuser.
I was never once informed of these rights contained in 6 CMC 9109, et seq. In fact, the only information I got about the status of my case or the whereabouts of my abuser was from the newspapers. I learned that he pleaded guilty, again only by happenstance due to something the Tinian DPS did to me, as I discuss below. Why was I not involved in the plea-bargaining? How were my rights as a victim protected if no one bothered to even tell me that the case was moving to a plea agreement? It seems that what happened to me was tossed aside and dealt with as unimportant-that my fleeing for my life after the defendant tried to kill me was ignored and belittled.
My second complaint: The Tinian DPS allowed the defendant to trespass on my property without my consent and tricked my daughter into believing that they had authority to enter my property. (I filed a complaint regarding this matter with the Tinian DPS, Case No. 09-000448.) On Nov. 11, 2009, between 10:30am and 10:45am, the Tinian DPS (officers Wally Villagomez and Eloy Fitial) came to my house (the scene of the July 2, 2009, shooting incident). At that time, I was not at my house but my daughter Vionna Aldan was outside the house. The officers got out of the car and held a piece of paper to Vionna, telling her that they have court papers and that they are there so that the defendant could show the officers where the gun was hidden. My daughter, noticing that the paper was official looking, just believed the officers that it was a search warrant or something like that. Besides, they told her it was papers giving them the right to be there. Pretty soon, the defendant got out of a rental car that came with the officers in the DPS vehicle and walked over to the side of the house. The Department of Corrections Commissioner, Dolores San Nicolas Aldan, also came out of the rental car and accompanied the defendant, Vicente Aldan. What is noteworthy here is that the Commissioner is also recently married to Vicente Aldan, the defendant.
My third complaint: The Tinian DPS and Corrections abused their authority. The Tinian DPS, namely the officers in this incident, lied to Vionna that they had authority to be on my property. The paper they used to pretend they had authority was the judgment and commitment order issued by the court. In fact, I was never served a copy of the order and it was only after I had gone to the Tinian DPS to file a complaint about this trespass incident that I was given a copy of the order. The order specifically prohibits the defendant from having any direct or indirect contact with me, and to surrender the gun he used in the incident. Nowhere on the order does it give the Tinian DPS any authority to be on my property without a search warrant. In addition, why was the Commissioner involved in this case if she is the defendant's spouse? Doesn't that present a conflict of interest on her part to be involved in protecting her interests, i.e. the interest of her spouse? She should not be involved in this case in any form. What is also interesting is that the case went swiftly from incident to adjudication, indicating that there's a strong likelihood that she exerted some influence due to her official capacity to get the defendant out of jail (so they can marry), etc? Did she also have some involvement in making sure that I did not know about the case, not made aware of the proceedings so that I can be heard, because it may delay the adjudication of the case? To what extent was she involved in getting the Tinian DPS to do her bidding, whatever that may be in reference to this case?
Finally, I am concerned that there may be retaliation actions that are being planned against me as a result of my complaining to you. I have had people tell me to be careful because they have heard from some police officers that I will targeted (scrutinized for traffic citations, etc.) if I continue to complain. I also was informed that Officer Melvin Monkeya believes that a police officer can enter anyone's property without any legal documents. I believe he needs to be reminded that such entry without any warrant is only allowable in exigent circumstances and that his position does not give him blanket authority to go anywhere.
I want this entire incident to be thoroughly investigated as to why I was never consulted on any issue relating to my domestic violence case, why were the officers and Commissioner allowed to be involved in enabling the defendant to violate the court order of no contact with me, and what solutions will be arrived at to ensure that my rights are protected.
Ellis Barcinas
San Jose, Tinian
Maybe it's just me, but I would not expect that a Commissioner of the Department of Corrections would be marrying a violent criminal less than 6 months after the criminal act. This whole story is like a soap opera gone bad, but it gets even worse.
It was also reported that as Commissioner Aldan allowed her husband weekend furloughs from prison. In January 2010, DOC Commissioner Dolores Aldan claims that her prisoner-husband does "not get any special treatment":
She said her husband is released from prison on weekends because he is among the many prisoners eligible for the home furlough program.Holding a gun to a person's head and pulling the trigger three times must be a misdemeanor in the CNMI and furloughs for prisoners in the CNMI also appear to be routine. Judge Wiseman sentenced Vincente Aldan to six months in prison without parole so apparently furloughs are allowed, but parole isn't. Citizens and tourists may wonder what exactly are "furlough" policies in the CNMI. How many prisoners are given furloughs, how often, and under what conditions? The public should know if this prisoner who still has possession of his gun in violation of the plea agreement still get weekend furloughs.
“We have a lot of inmates on furlough. This program has been.what.20 years old already,” said Dolores Aldan in an interview.
She said her husband, Vicente T. Aldan, is eligible for the home furlough program because his conviction-assault-is a misdemeanor.
“Me, I don't want problems. We are professionals here to handle our own discretion, judgment, whatever it is,” she said.
It sure seems that that Vicente T. Aldan received "special treatment", not just from his wife, but from the AGO. Maybe Mr. Hasselback will reveal what he knows.
Hearing Yesterday
Yesterday Superior Court Judge David Wiseman said that Aldan's possession of the handgun "poses serious concerns for the safety of the community.” The hearing yesterday was unconventional with AAG Hasselback sitting in the gallery and another AAG, Brian Gallagher at the bench appearing for the government. The judge reportedly instructed Hasselback to join Gallagher at the bench. From the Saipan Tribune:
Assistant attorney general Brian Gallagher appeared for the government yesterday. Hasselback sat in the gallery.
Noticing this, Wiseman asked Gallagher: “Why are you here? It doesn't make sense. Why not Hasselback?”
The judge then instructed Hasselback to sit beside Gallagher at the prosecution's table.
Gallagher explained that Attorney General Edward T. Buckingham instructed him to appear. He then tried to read Buckingham's position in the case “for the record.”
Wiseman, however, interrupted him and asked why he was reading Buckingham's message in which the AG was taking the defense's role.
“What authority do you have to withdraw the motion?” Wiseman asked. Gallagher replied he is with the OAG and was instructed to do so.
Hasselback stated that since he is resigning from the OAG on April 5, he does not know what will happen to the motion to withdraw the plea agreement he filed. He suggested the appointment of a special prosecutor for this case.
Wiseman agreed, saying that if the AG still wants to take the role of the defense, he will entertain the appointment of a special prosecutor.
The Marianas Variety reported:
Superior Court Associate Judge David Wiseman yesterday said the Attorney General’s Office appeared to be “lawyering” for domestic violence convict Vicente T. Aldan.At least the judge appears to be aware that the AGO is defending the criminal rather than representing the best interest of the public.
During the resumption of the hearing for the government’s motion to set aside the plea agreement it entered with Aldan, 52, Wiseman asked what Assistant Attorney General Brian Gallagher was doing in the courtroom.
Gallagher attended the hearing with Assistant Attorney General George Hasselback.
Aldan appeared under the custody of the Department of Corrections. He has been serving his six months imprisonment since Dec. 2009.
Variety was told that Chief Prosecutor Rosemond B. Santos sought for continuance of yesterday’s hearing.
During its hearing last week, Hasselback told the court that the AGO was withdrawing its motion to set aside the plea agreement and to prosecute Aldan for his failure to surrender the handgun he used against his former domestic partner.
Gallagher yesterday told the court that Attorney General Edward Buckingham instructed him to read a message from the AG to the court.
Among other things, Buckingham told the court that the plea agreement was “poorly drafted.”...
...Hasselback asked the court to appoint a special prosecutor since his last day in office will be on Monday, April 5, 2010.
Wiseman noted that the request was premature.
Hasselback reminded the court about the “very clear stand of [the AG’s] office” regarding the case.
Hasselback also noted “some personal repercussions.”
Gallagher told reporters that he was the prosecutor assigned to Wiseman’s courtroom and other inquiries should be directed to Buckingham.
“I totally disagree,” Hasselback told reporters when asked for his reaction to Buckingham’s statement.
According to the Saipan Tribune Buckingham is worried about the poor drafting of a plea, but not about a violent criminal having a handgun and being allowed furloughs on weekends? From the article:
What is extraordinary about the case of defendant Vicente T. Aldan isn't familial connections but a plea agreement that wasn't drafted well, according to Attorney General Edward T. Buckingham.Did Mr. Buckingham forget that this criminal is furloughed on weekends?! While the AG, attorneys and the judge discuss the merits of a motion and plea, a violent criminal remains in possession of a handgun.
In an interview with Saipan Tribune, Buckingham said the plea agreement should have specified what would happen if Aldan fails to comply with the conditions of the agreement.
The plea agreement was drafted by then assistant attorney general George Hasselback.
“Our office drafted the plea agreement so we should be responsible for it, not [Aldan],” Buckingham pointed out.
Hasselback said yesterday that Buckingham is entitled to his opinion.
Buckingham said the condition of retrieving the gun was known prior to Aldan entering the Department of Corrections' custody.
“If it was not retrieved, a motion to set aside the plea agreement should have been filed before he went into custody. Also, an extraordinary motion like this should have been reviewed, prior to filing, with the Chief Prosecutor,” Buckingham said.
He said Aldan signed the plea agreement on Nov. 2, 2009, and entered the DOC as a detainee on Dec. 7, 2009-about a month later.
Buckingham said one could not expect Aldan to retrieve the weapon while he is locked up.
