By Troy Torres, Kandit News
In an order issued Monday, U.S. District Court of Guam chief judge Frances Tydingco Gatewood recused herself from the criminal corruption case involving more than half of Lt. Governor Joshua Tenorio’s family. The chief judge of the federal court in Saipan, Judge Ramona Manglona, has been appointed by the head of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to preside over the case.
Judge Tydingco-Gatewood did not provide a reason for her self-recusal in her one-page order, citing only 28 U.S.C. §455a, which states “Any … judge … shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”
Kandit is awaiting word from the governor’s office whether either Governor Lou Leon Guerrero or Lt. Governor Tenorio authored letters of support for the renomination of Judge Tydingco-Gatewood.
In related news, the U.S. Probation Office, according to federal court documents, has informed the State Department that Mr. Tenorio’s sister and the alleged head of the criminal conspiracy, Charissa Tenorio, has surrendered her passport and is not to be issued a new one, by order of the federal judge.
If convicted at trial, Ms. Tenorio faces up to 560 years in prison for a slew of federal corruption crimes stemming from allegations she defrauded the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program and others out of $1.9 million.
