SAIPAN — The Northern Marianas Commonwealth Legislature’s Legislative Bureau has hired attorney David P. Karch as legal counsel, with a series of staff reassignments that will shift experienced counsel between the two chambers.
In a June 2 memorandum to Senate President Karl R. King-Nabors and House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez, Legislative Bureau Director Perry John P. Tenorio announced that Karch had accepted an offer to join the bureau and is expected to report for duty June 16, pending completion of pre-employment requirements.
Tenorio said he was adjusting legal counsel assignments to better support the operational needs of the Legislature. Following the departure of Counsel Joseph Taijeron, Karie Comstock is currently the sole legal counsel assigned to the House. Because Comstock has less than one year of direct legislative experience, Tenorio wrote, both chambers should have access to an appropriate balance of institutional knowledge and legal expertise. He noted the Senate is currently supported by two counsels whose combined tenure provides significant depth.
Under the changes, which take effect upon Karch’s arrival, Jose Bermudes will be reassigned from the Senate to the House to provide guidance and support alongside Comstock, and Karch will be assigned to the Senate to serve alongside Antonette Villagomez.
Karch is the same attorney named in a motion the Office of the Attorney General filed May 29 seeking to invalidate the settlement that ended the criminal cases against former Governor Ralph Anthony Deleon Guerrero Torres. In that filing, the OAG argued that Karch, while serving as a prosecutor, lacked the authority to grant Torres immunity, a characterization made by the OAG that has not been ruled on by the court. The defense team for Torres has called the OAG motion without merit. The Legislative Bureau memo does not reference the Torres case, and the bureau’s legal counsel role is a separate position within the legislative branch.
