Releases show judges indifferent to family violence victims who keep getting hurt

Guam Attorney General Douglas Moylan is pushing hard for judges to incarcerate violent arrestees awaiting trial. It’s hard to ignore his point, when so many of them are constantly getting arrested over and over. And for many of these cases, female victims of violence repeatedly are re-victimized despite stay away orders, and pleas to judges for their perpetrators to stay in jail as they await trial.

Mr. Moylan has been publishing monthly reports showing the public which judges are releasing criminal defendants who end up allegedly committing more crimes as they await trial. Most of these are violent crimes with victims. The attorney general’s position on the matter is black and white: If the judge had incarcerated the allegedly violent offender while pending trial, the defendant would not have been free to hurt another free citizen.

The reports are simple compilations of data. Monday night, I got the idea to bring this more in-depth report to you about the point Mr. Moylan has been making, after seeing the name and mugshot of criminal defendant Dante Buensuceso, Jr. He was charged Saturday with meth possession after a police officer allegedly found the drug on him during a Cinco de Mayo traffic stop.

The reason his name and face sound and look so familiar, is because this isn’t Mr. Buenseceso’s first ride on the criminal justice rodeo. It isn’t even his second. Or third.

Dante Fortaleza Buensuceso, Jr.’s five arrests for drugs and escalating violence

The 29-year-old was arrested on April 20, 2020, and charged the next day with meth possession and traffic crimes.

On January 21, 2022, prosecutors accused him of an escalation in his alleged criminal behavior, charging him with meth possession, family violence, terrorizing, unauthorized use of a vehicle, and violations of his release conditions from the 2020 case. The magistrates report in this case mentions a 2018 case (Kandit’s records do not go back that far).

According to the January 21, 2022 complaint, Mr. Buensuceso drove off with his girlfriend’s car rental after grabbing her by the neck and shoving her multiples times in a January 12, 2022 incident.

On January 20, 2022, cops responded to a Dededo residence, where a crime victim accused Mr. Buensuceso of kicking in her front door and threatening her with a knife. “Do you wanna see me fucken mad?!” the magistrate report states the victim quoted Mr. Buensuceso as yelling at her. He “then retrieved a knife from the sink and walked back towards her. He threatened to kill her dog and then kill her.”‘

He had a stay-away order, and two bench warrants on record at the time, according to the report.

Nine months later, Mr. Buensuceso was arrested again, this time on charges he threatened to hurt his own mother if she didn’t give him money.

He “demanded that the victim give him money. When she told him that she did not have money, [he] became angered and began banging various items in the victim’s house. The report indicates that when the victim told him that she would call the police, [he] told the victim that there would be a ‘bloodbath’ at her residence. The report further indicates that the victim had seen [him] in possession of a small handgun and that she believed he would carry out his threat. As she was leaving the residence in her vehicle, [he] threw what appeared to be brass knuckles to the rear part of her vehicle which caused a dent to her vehicle.”

Two days later, he allegedly tried to break into her home.

Gino Muareluk and the ex-girlfriend assaulted six times whom judges don’t seem to care about

Then there’s the new case against Gino Tedtaotao Muareluk for the alleged aggravated assault of his ex-girlfriend and mother of his children. According to May 8, 2023 charges against him, Mr. Muareluk tried to break into her home, and managed to assault her, when he allegedly threw a full can of soda at her face.

This latest series of violence charges makes note that in January this year, Mr. Muareluk pleaded guilty to criminal felony 742-22, and that he was on probation for that case. “The victim in CF0742-22 is the same victim in this case,” the latest report states.

CF0742-22 involves two victims of family violence, burglary, criminal trespass, and harassment charges, according to the December 29, 2022 amended complaint against Mr. Muareluk.

According to that complaint, his mother told police he asked her for money on December 27, 2022 to buy beer. When she told him she did not have money, he punched a man with her five times.

The next night, police responded to a disturbance at the Dededo residence of the same ex-girlfriend mentioned above. He broke into her locked apartment while she was sleeping, she woke, and found him standing in the hallway.

“He was mumbling to her and to himself which caused her to believe he was drunk,” the report states. “Because of his actions and what he had done in the past, she feared for her and her children’s safety.

These were not the first instances, where this woman was victimized and asked police and the courts to keep Mr. Muareluk away from her and her children.

According to records, Mr. Muareluk has been charged for allegedly committing crimes of violence against his ex-girlfriend at least six times:  twice in 2021; three times in 2022; and once again this year.

Each time, according to the charging documents, a judge issues a stay away order, Mr. Muareluk allegedly seeks the woman out, and he allegedly terrorizes and assaults her.

On February 20, 2022, according to one of the documents, Mr. Muareluk allegedly stabbed a man repeatedly with a machete. Police noted the victim in that case “had a surface wound to his shoulder and four lacerations to his head and neck that were bleeding profusely.”

Bryan Matheus’s alleged graduation from assaulting a cop to chopping a man’s face with a machete

On July 7, 2019, Bryan Matheus already was in jail, when he allegedly assaulted a Department of Corrections officer.

For whatever reason, Mr. Matheus was out of jail and in a Tumon hotel on June 6, 2021, when he allegedly punched a woman without any provocation when they entered an elevator. “Upon returning to their room, [he] punched her twice on her face which caused the inside of her mouth to bleed,” the report states. It further states he later assaulted her with his cell phone, then with a mop she was using.

He allegedly assaulted the same victim the following year at the Garden Villa Hotel on April 27, 2022, at midnight, then two hours later at Uncle Joe’s Laundromat, according to a May 3, 2022 magistrates complaint against him. According to that report, Mr. Matheus had an additional victim, whom he allegedly assaulted on the head at Garden Villa on May 2 that year. This report notes the female victim had a stay-away order from the previous case and that she was his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his children.

Finally, Mr. Matheus graduated to an aggravated assault charge March 23, this year, when prosecutors charged him with allegedly cutting off half a man’s face with a machete in a December 9, 2022 incident.

“There was blood to the individual’s chest with blood streaming from his face,” the report states. “Officers noted that the skin from his cheek to his chin was hanging and was bleeding profusely.” According to the report in that case, Mr. Matheus walked up to the victim pretending to want to shake his hand, them “pulled a machete out from his pants and cut the victim’s face.”

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There are scores more examples of criminal defendants who have been charged with committing crimes after judges release them on pre-trial conditions. These three simply were the first, who came to mind.