Kingman rebukes yet another attempt by Ralph Torres to stop criminal trial against former governor

Yet another attempt by Ralph Torres and his team of lawyers to stop a jury from hearing the facts against the former governor in his criminal trial has been rebuked by the man hired to bring Mr. Torres to criminal justice for crimes of corruption.

James Kingman, now assistant attorney general in charge of prosecuting the corrupt in the Commonwealth, today filed with the CNMI Superior Court his response to Mr. Torres’ latest attempt to get rid of Mr. Kingman from the case. The prosecutor, reputed for his zealous crusades against public corruption, was hired this past summer by the CNMI Office of the Attorney General. He previously was admitted to practice law in a limited capacity earlier this year.

Last month, Mr. Torres’ team of lawyers filed their latest motion – there have been several that have ultimately delayed the trial, ironically costing taxpayers even more money – to get rid of Mr. Kingman. This time, the defendant’s attorneys accused him of committing the crime of illegally practicing law.

The latest attempt by Torres to get rid of his prosecutor

The basis of their accusation is that Kingman, during the time he had a pro had vice admission to practice law in the Commonwealth, did not have a legally binding contract and did not take an oath of office during that time period.

“The Defense Team could have looked to see if an oath was required,” Mr. Kingman wrote in his reply to the motion, filed today. “If they had, they would have seen that it was not. Instead, they publicly accuse Kingman of crimes.”

Mr. Kingman also told the court that had defense lawyers simply called the clerk of the Supreme Court of the CNMI to verify whether such an oath existed, they would have found that none does.

Mr. Torres’ legal team also consists of an attorney admitted to practice pro hac vice. Mr. Kingman said Mr. Torres could simply have asked his own lawyer whether he took an oath of office before he falsely accused Mr. Kingman of a crime.

The Kingman filing also brought to light Mr. Torres’ continuous attempts to delay trial, first through his constant motions, second through a request to the court to hold trial in April 2024 – one month after Kingman’s pro hac vice license would have expired, and lately through a request to delay trial until July next year.

Frivolous motions

Mr. Kingman also alluded to the Torres defense team’s penchant for filing frivolous motions without any basis in law. In its accusations against the prosecutor, the Torres defense team constantly relied of allegations based on their apparent assumptions, including their reliance on a KUAM news article to enter so-called ‘facts,’ into the case.

“‘Apparently’ seems to be a favored standard of proof for the Defense Team: ‘the unauthorized practice of law has apparently occurred in this case;’ ‘Kingman may have been admitted on March 6, 2023, but he apparently did not take the oath…;’ ‘Kingman apparently took the mandatory oath on July 13, 2023;’ ‘Kingman apparently took the oath on July 13, 2023;’ ‘Conclusion on Mr. Kingman’s apparent unauthorized practice of law…;’ ‘Since there is no evidence that Mr. Kingman was sworn in between March 6, 2023, and July 12, 2023, then he was apparently engaging in the unauthorized practice of law and the OAG was allowing him to do so.’” – Footnote 3 of the Kingman filing

The unauthorized disclosure of Ralph Torres’ bank account number

According to the Kingman motion, KUAM News recently published a court document without redacting Mr. Torres’ bank account number at the Bank of Guam. The Torres defense team has used that unauthorized disclosure as a reason for sanctions against the attorney general and Mr. Kingman specifically.

According to Kandit sources, that document leak was caused by people close to Mr. Torres in order to sabotage the case.

“As has come to be expected, Defendant wants it both ways,” Mr. Kingman wrote. “They argued in their reply to the opposition to the Motion to Quash that the Commonwealth ‘has not launched an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure,’ an assertion that they make without any evidence. At the same time that they want this ‘fact’ to cut against the Commonwealth, they now argue that such an investigation would be outside of Kingman’s pro hac vice authority.”

A hearing before Judge pro tempore Arthur Barcinas is set to take place in Saipan on September 11, 2023.