Will David Lujan expose police corruption at Red Jeep trial?


Guam Police Department sources say GPD and the attorney general are reluctant to have disciplinary information about the officers involved in the red Jeep – Jerry’s Kitchen scandal publicly released. Revealing these officers’s records of alleged misconduct, they say, will expose the AG and GPD’s knowledge and condoning of police corruption.

The AG’s case against Nakita Aguon, one of the four occupants of the Jeep that destroyed Jerry’s Kitchen during the early morning hours of February 25, 2021, has been falling apart at her trial, where she is fighting the lone driving under the influence misdemeanor charge against her. The trial began last month, and resumes Wednesday.

The AG did not charge any of the other three occupants of the vehicle. One of the occupants included an off-duty police officers with significant political ties: GPD officer Joneen Terlaje. The lone eye witness to the crash, it was revealed in the trial, told police the driver of the Jeep was a muscular woman with tattoos. Ms. Aguon does not have any visible tattoos.

As part of her defense, Ms. Aguon’s attorney – David Lujan – has called for prosecutors to hand over the disciplinary records of the police officers who responded to the scene of the crime, and of the police officers who handled the secondary investigation. That secondary investigation was called by chief of police Stephen Ignacio following a public outcry about GPD’s handling of the case, and the appearance of a coverup.

“You guys were ordered to reinvestigate to find out if there was corruption, here!” Mr. Lujan lectured one of the secondary investigators during cross examination at trial.

“They don’t want the public to see these files because they show that some of these officers have very been disciplined many times for misconduct,” a police source of information told Kandit. “Not only will these records show the jury in the Aguon case that you just can’t trust these officers, these records will show that some of these guys should have been let go from the force years ago.”

Disciplinary records are not subject to public disclosure. And whether those records have been submitted to the defense, and furthermore whether the judge will allow their disclosure in open court, are factors yet to be verified and determined.

What has been disclosed in open court are admissions by police officers involved in the investigation that several protocols were not followed by GPD. For example, GPD investigator Scott Arceo admitted the responding officers should have insisted on conducting some type of field sobriety test, based on the circumstances of the crash.

Another key misstep, according to officers cross examined by Mr. Lujan, was the alleged failure by responding officers to interview the lone eye witness.

The original reports of the crash also failed to mention Ms. Terlaje’s involvement.

The defense theory of the case is that Ms. Aguon was not the driver, when the Jeep crashed into Jerry’s Kitchen. According to witness testimony, it was Ms. Terlaje who handed Ms. Aguon’s driver’s license to one of the responding officers – Chris Champion.

Mr. Champion issued Ms. Aguon a traffic ticket, according to a report approved by supervisor Jessica Meyenberg.

According to that report, the crash occurred at 1:30 a.m. on February 25, 2021. Mr. Champion was on scene at 1:34 a.m. The “time investigated,” according to the report was clocked six minutes later, at 1:40 a.m. All four occupants were released from the scene within minutes, and the scene – except for the destruction of Jerry’s Kitchen – was cleared before the sun rose.


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