THE original case against former Gov. Ralph DLG Torres was filed by the Office of the Attorney General on April 8, 2022. Torres was charged with 12 counts of misconduct in public office and one count of theft relating to the issuance of airline tickets for business class, first class, or other premium class travel for himself and/or Diann T. Torres, his wife. The OAG also alleged one count of contempt for failure to appear in compliance with a legislative subpoena. Torres has denied the charges.
On Aug. 23, 2022, Judge Pro Tempore Alberto Tolentino dismissed without prejudice the contempt charge against Torres. Without prejudice means that the charge can be refiled. The judge said evidence indicated that the prosecutor, J. Robert Glass Jr., was exposed to “privileged information regarding non-appearance to a legislative subpoena as charged in Count XIV — Contempt.”
On Oct. 26, 2023, Assistant Attorney General James Robert Kingman refiled a separate charge of contempt and misconduct in public office against Torres. On Dec. 19, 2023, Judge Barcinas directed the prosecution to refile the penal summons against Torres after finding that Kingman did not “effectuate proper service of proper.” As of this writing, the Superior Court had not issued a jury trial date yet.
Ralph DLG Torres
Background
In Dec. 2021, then-Governor Torres, a Republican, was found by a Democrat-Independent-led House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee in contempt of a legislative subpoena for refusing to appear before the panel, which was investigating his public expenditures. On Jan. 12, 2022, the House impeached Torres, who was accused of corruption, neglect of duty, and felonies of theft as well as contempt. On May 18, 2022, the Republican-led Senate acquitted Torres of all charges. Subsequently, he sued the House JGO Committee and sought a court declaration that the subpoena was unlawful and that its enforcement would violate the CNMI Constitution. According to the committee members, the speech or debate clause of the CNMI Constitution made them absolutely immune from a suit by the governor. The Superior Court agreed and dismissed the case. Torres then appealed the dismissal to the CNMI Supreme Court. Last year, the justices pro tempore — Guam Supreme Court Chief Justice Philip Carbullido, Guam Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert J. Torres, and Guam Superior Court Judge Arthur Barcinas — presided over the appeal proceedings and heard arguments from the parties. On Oct. 31, 2023, they dismissed Torres’s appeal.
Against Finance
Torres has also requested the Superior Court for a judicial review of the Department of Finance’s refusal to issue a declaratory order on the validity of an employment contract between the AG’s office and James Robert Kingman, who is originally from Texas. Torres, through his defense team, filed a petition in court requesting a judicial review of a May 17, 2023 final administrative order by the secretary of Finance, who stated that the department had no authority to issue a ruling and declare that Kingman’s contract executed by the Office of the AG, in connection with Commonwealth v Torres, Criminal Action No. 22-0050, was invalid. In his petition filed on June 15, 2023, Torres named the Finance Department and the AG’s office as respondents. The nine-page petition asked the court to vacate or set aside the final agency decision, which he described as “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and/or contrary to law.” For their part, the AG’s office and Finance have asked the court to dismiss the petition. Finance said the court should affirm the department’s administrative order, which stated that it lacked authority to issue a declaratory order regarding an existing contract. For the AG’s office, Torres has failed to exhaust his administrative remedies, and his petition improperly included the OAG. As of this writing, Torres’s petition remains pending.
<p style=”text-align: center;”><strong><em>As of this writing, the Superior Court had not issued a jury trial date yet.</em></strong>