Guam Effectively Without Functioning AG; Current Office Holder Is Corrupt, Incompetent, and Constantly Losing Criminal Prosecutions

Opinion by Peter J. Santos for Kandit News & Views

Dear People of Guam, our island has effectively been without an attorney general since January of 2023. Allow me to explain. The Attorney General of Guam is an elected position; however it’s a non-partisan and non-political position. By definition, the Attorney General of Guam is not supposed to be a politician. Douglas Moylan is a politician who currently occupies the seat of the Attorney General however his is not acting like an attorney general based on his highly political behavior and his failure to perform any of the duties that the Attorney General is supposed to perform.

Under Guam’s Organic Act, the Attorney General is the island’s Chief Legal Officer which means he is the primary attorney responsible to provide legal services and legal representation of the government of Guam. Hence he’s the Attorney General, as in: he’s generally the attorney who is primarily responsible for the government, “general” is not a rank. The services the AG must provide include child support enforcement, consumer protection, legal advice to GovGuam agencies, boards, and instrumentalities, regal Reviews of certain contracts, procurements, and other fiscal instruments. The AG also sues on behalf of GovGuam and defends GovGuam in lawsuits. Under Guam laws, some GovGuam agencies and instrumentalities are authorized to hire their own attorneys or procure legal services outside of the Office of the Attorney General of Guam.

Under Guam Statute, the elected AG also has “cognizance of criminal prosecutions.” This means that the AG oversees criminal prosecutions, but under rare circumstances, he may need to appoint a special prosecutor if the AG’s Office is conflicted from a case.

 

Tilting At Windmills: The Man of Fagaga

Since being sworn in in January of 2023 Doug Moylan has failed to fulfill any of his campaign promises and has done nothing more than tilt at windmills. He’s a headline hog with no substance and no results to show for his rabblerousing. He does appear to have public support and favor, based on his demagoguery and politicization of AG’s Office, but those folks who support his antics and theatrics don’t understand what the AG is and isn’t supposed to be. Furthermore, they seem to willingly ignore his failures of not providing the mandatory legal services or effective criminal prosecutions that he is responsible for. In other words, he is woefully incompetent and inept, but he’s supported by those, who like him, fail to understand his actual duties because he’s politically useful to them.

What’s much more disturbing, however, is how he has been disqualified in government corruption prosecutions for violating ethical rules of the practice of law on Guam, positing to the Supreme Court of Guam that the rules don’t apply to him. Thankfully, the Guam Supreme Court disabused him of that ludicrous and ridiculous notion. A recurring theme of Doug is that he fails to understand the law and fails to respect the rule of law.

Doug Moylan commits corruption with impunity, because he has gone unchecked, because everyone with the authority to oversee his actions are afraid to challenge him. Doug has hired his brother Scott Moylan in a position made up out of thin air, and he violated hiring procedures and practices, ignoring the prohibition of nepotism. He pays Scott $120K a year of taxpayer money while others with more seniority than Scott get paid about half of that. He also hired his fiancée and pays her about $123K a year of taxpayer money, also violating all of the hiring procedures and policies.

Doug likes to call himself the top law enforcement officer of Guam. We should know that law enforcement officers are supposed to be held to a higher standard. They are supposed to lead by example. They are supposed to be competent and have integrity. Doug has none of these.

For the reasons stated above, Guam has not had an attorney general since January 2023. I say that because the duties and responsibilities of the Attorney General have not been performed since January 2023. What we have instead, is a very corrupt and incompetent politician occupying the seat that is supposed to be filled by a non-partisan and non-political attorney general. The people of Guam continue to be disserviced and harmed by the corrupt and incompetent Non-Attorney General politician, named Doug Moylan.

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Peter J. Santos is from Agat, Guam. He is a former Police Officer, Army JAG Officer, Military Magistrate, Criminal Justice Adjunct Instructor, Prosecutor, current Defense Attorney.