Attorney General Leevin Camacho is not responding to allegations he is mistreating one of his prosecutors over military service leave.
Several sources close to the prosecution division of the Office of the Attorney General of Guam confirm Mr. Camacho and his management team ostracized a prosecutor, who tried to apply compensatory time he earned to hours away from work due to military service. The prosecutor is a member of one of the military’s reserve branches.
“Prosecution is the only division that comes into work on Saturdays, and sometimes on Sundays,” one source said. “This particular prosecutor built up comp time, just like many others, and so it’s not like he was asking for some handout or free vacation days. Plus, this was to serve our country.”
Every Saturday prosecutors worked, they received eight hours of comp time, which are leave hours that can be taken later. According to sources, this particular prosecutor used annual leave hours, then attempted to use comp time after exhausting the 15-day initial period. Mr. Camacho denied the prosecutor’s use of comp time, forcing him to be on military service without pay.
Section 8.413 of the government of Guam’s Personnel Rules and Regulations – the section pertaining to military leave – states, part:
“Any absence in excess of 15 work days may, upon request by the employee and approval of the appointing authority, be covered by accrued annual leave credits or accrued compensatory leave credits.”
The prosecutor earned the leave hours after working nearly every Saturday and sometimes on Sundays. He made the proper request. And Mr. Camacho denied it.
The prosecutor then filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) program; a complaint that went unanswered and ignored by the OAG.
“[T]he AG’s office just ignored the complaint, laughing at it and him,” another source stated.
Retaliation
According to several sources, the OAG management team dealt with the matter by stripping prosecutors of compensatory time accrual. Now, the work they perform on Saturdays to catch up with the mounting pile of violent crime cases before them, no longer will be compensated in any form or fashion.
The announcement was at a meeting called by Chief Prosecutor Basil O’Mallan, where the prosecutor was not present. At that meeting, according to sources, management told the prosecutors their comp time accrual was being taken away because their colleague had pressed the issue.
“Management encouraged all the other prosecutors to blame the military service-member, and not management for revoking the previous practice of granting comp/flex time for covering court on weekends,” one source stated.
Kandit asked for Mr. Camacho’s response to these allegations through his spokeswoman, Carlina Charfauros. No official response has come. Kandit still is waiting for responses to several other questions sent last week regarding other scandals that have been exposed at the OAG.
The melee is the latest in scandals leaking out of Mr. Camacho’s OAG.
Kandit has been exposing a litany of issues at the OAG calling into question the management and propriety of Mr. Camacho and his management team. Among the issues we have exposed have been the alleged mistreatment of prosecutors and an exodus that began with sex crimes prosecutor Christine Tenorio, Camacho pressuring prosecutors to charge cases where insufficient probable cause was available, and a gag order the AG allegedly issued that prevented the implementation of critical updates to the island’s sex crimes statutes.
Mr. Camacho has not denied any of the accusations against him.
