SAIPAN — The law firm Torres Brothers LLC has submitted a joint letter to the Senate EAGI Committee supporting the nomination of Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho for Presiding Judge of the CNMI Superior Court, while directly challenging Attorney General Edward Manibusan’s characterization of a case he cited to oppose the nomination.
The letter, signed by Victorino DLG. Torres and Matthew J. Holley and dated March 25, disputes Manibusan’s account of Commonwealth v. Weintraub, 2019 MP 1, noting that Torres Brothers served as defense counsel at trial and was present throughout the proceedings. The attorneys said the attorney general’s portrayal of the case was incomplete and unfair.
“Judge Camacho stands among the very best,” the attorneys wrote, citing more than 24 years of practice in the CNMI and Guam and appearances before many judges. “He has improved the practice of law by demanding the highest level of preparation, skill, and character from all attorneys, prosecutors included.”
On the Weintraub case, Torres and Holley said the difficulties in the proceedings arose not from any error by Judge Camacho but from the prosecution’s failure to meet its discovery obligations. They said the Office of the Attorney General, under Manibusan, failed to produce key materials including a photographic lineup used by its own witnesses, which went directly to the reliability of identification evidence the prosecution intended to rely upon.
“Withholding evidence that bears directly on a defendant’s innocence is improper,” the letter states. “That is precisely what occurred here.”
The attorneys said Judge Camacho correctly struck the government’s witness testimony after finding the prosecution had failed to comply with its discovery obligations. They added that the appellate record cited by Manibusan was one-sided because the defense, having already won at the trial level, had no standing or practical reason to participate in the appeal. The government ultimately dismissed the case with prejudice, which the attorneys said amounted to a concession that Camacho’s ruling was correct.
Torres and Holley also took issue with Manibusan’s role in the matter, noting that he neither participated at trial nor contributed to the appellate proceedings yet now seeks to use the case to undermine Camacho’s nomination. They added that the prosecutor who handled the appeal, Weintraub, subsequently had her contract not renewed.
On the broader question of the attorney general’s role, the letter argued Manibusan has exceeded his constitutional lane. “As legal counsel to the Governor, his client is the Governor, yet he has written a letter contradicting the Governor’s appointment of Judge Camacho,” the attorneys wrote. “His actions in this matter reflect a disregard for that duty and demonstrate a failure to respect the boundaries established by our Constitution.”
The letter is the second support letter submitted to the EAGI Committee from Saipan attorneys this week, following a letter from Robert T. Torres on March 25.
