Crazy That the Governor Tried to Stop Corruption Prosecutions

Last year, Governor Lou Leon Guerrero posited a ludicrous question to the Supreme Court of Guam, hoping for a deleterious outcome. She essentially wanted the court to disqualify Attorney General Douglas Moylan from prosecuting corrupt officials in her cabinet on the grounds that his office also represents the executive agencies in civil matters.

After Mr. Moylan had announced he was investigating more than half the line agencies, including the governor’s office, for corruption, and following a number of independent audits alleging criminal activity within the executive branch, Ms. Leon Guerrero wanted to disqualify the elected attorney general from prosecuting corruption. Insanity.

 

Thankfully, all three justices of the Supreme Court of Guam answered the governor’s question to the satisfaction of every reasonable Guamanian: our elected attorney general can oversee both his office’s civil duties to the agencies and its prosecution of public officials within those agencies so long as rules governing lawyer conduct are followed.

In a December 31, 2024 news release announcing Chief Justice Robert Torres’ decision along with Justice Katherine Maraman and Justice F. Philip Carbullido, the court said:

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The … question answered by the court was: “May the Attorney General provide legal services to the agency, notwithstanding his access to confidential information from both the agency and the investigations and prosecutions?” The Supreme Court answered in the affirmative, stating that “the Office of the Attorney General may represent an executive branch agency in civil matters while investigating and prosecuting an agency official in criminal matters without violating ethical duties if the Attorney General’s staff can be assigned in a way that affords independent legal counsel and representation in the civil matter, and so long as such representation does not result in prejudice to the official in the criminal matter.” The Supreme Court explained that the Attorney General’s arguments about his responsibilities to officials were not a part of the Governor’s Petition, and instead the Governor’s questions focused on the Attorney General’s withdrawal from legal representation of executive branch agencies, his organizational clients. The court emphasized that “[t]he Attorney General has an attorney-client relationship with executive branch agencies, and the [rules of professional conduct] apply,” and that because agencies are the clients of the Attorney General, he owes them a duty of confidentiality and loyalty. The court found that there was “no inherent conflict of interest between the Attorney General’s dual roles as Chief Legal Officer and Public Prosecutor,” but “[a]ctual conflicts of interest may arise when the Office of the Attorney General prosecutes a government official.” The court concluded the appropriate standard for determining if there is a conflict is whether an attorney, “by reason of his professional relation with the accused, . . . has acquired knowledge of facts upon which the prosecution is predicated, or which are closely interwoven therewith.” The court stated that questions about any potential conflicts should be decided on a case-by-case basis.

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The administration’s concerns about Mr. Moylan’s use of prosecutorial power appear to be understandable in light of what seem to have been frivolous corruption indictments involving officials at Guam Regional Transit Authority and Guam Department of Public Health and Social Services. However, those concerns should never translate into depriving the people of their representation by the only chief legal officer whose office can prosecute corruption.

What was the governor thinking?

If Mr. Moylan’s prosecution of the GRTA and DPHSS officials was without justification, then allow the judicial ethics process to take its course. But don’t attempt to disable the only legal recourse the people have outside of the U.S. Attorney’s Office to disintegrate corruption and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The fight against corruption already is an uphill battle. Our outdated transparency laws coupled with the administration’s oft habit (practically policy) of refusing to release information the public should know makes accountability that much harder. Our cultural attitude about cronyism requires a reset. The already underfunded and understaffed media who are propelled by brave confidential sources and few others dedicated to the fight against corruption forge upstream as it is. Deterrence through criminal justice must remain a weapon in this battle that the righteous side has been losing since the institution of self government in 1951.

 

Criminal investigations are kept under wraps until charges are dropped, so we can only hope that the Office of the Attorney General is dedicating sufficient resources to the prosecution of corrupt public officials and their colluders in the private sector. We have been treated to glimpses and evidence of where the corruption happened thanks to the fine work of Public Auditor Benjamin Cruz and his Office of Public Accountability.

We, the public, are left wondering if and when the attorney general will prosecute officials from the former and present administration based on the several audits by Mr. Cruz that have alleged criminal wrongdoing. From the E-911 funds to the Pacific Star Hotel contract to pandemic-era spending to Guam Memorial Hospital to the Department of Education, and most recently to Guam Homeland Security-Office of Civil Defense: WE. ARE. WAITING. We want action. We do NOT want the corrupt to get away with it again, as they almost always do.

 

Now that the court has affirmed Mr. Moylan’s rightful duties, perhaps he can return from this distraction by the governor and bring us meaningful criminal justice.

The fact that the governor tried to stop him from doing this job says a lot. And I suppose that if I were her, and my lieutenant governor was under federal criminal investigation for corruption, I’d want everyone to shut up, too.

The land of silence and darkness is where corruption thrives. The Supreme Court of Guam turned the lights on.