By Jacob Nakamura
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero has appointed longtime magistrate judge Alberto Tolentino to fill the seat being vacated by Judge Anita Sukola.
Mr. Tolentino must be confirmed by the Guam Legislature before assuming the bench as a trial court judge.
This is a developing story.
On Feb. 1, 2019, a police complaint was filed alleging corruption at the Guam Office of Attorney General (AGO). The complaint alleged illegal double dipping at the AGO, and complicity therewith. I am Joseph A. Guthrie, a 16-year veteran of the Office of Attorney General who was deputy attorney general between 2003 and 2006, and I am the person who submitted the police complaint. The police complaint alleged that attorney Philip J. Tydingco committed the misdemeanors of official misconduct, unsworn falsification, and false statement related to GovGuam retirement – and that attorneys John Patrick "Pat" Mason, Alicia Limtiaco, ALBERTO TOLENTINO, John Weisenberger, and Leonardo Rapadas were complicit in all or some of these crimes. The police complaint further alleges as…
CONTINUED FROM ABOVE
On Jan. 3, 2007, Mason signed a contract between himself and AG's office. The contract purported to be an independent contract, but Mason knew it to be a sham contract, insofar as the services of deputy attorney general contemplated to be provided under the contract by the signatories could – under applicable statute, temporary law, and personnel rule – only be legally provided by an unclassified employee, and not an independent contractor. The contract was also a sham contract because no Request for Proposal soliciting the interest of other potential independent contractors was issued before the contract was signed, contrary to the Guam Procurement Law. From Jan. 2, 2007 to Sept. 17, 2014, Mason performed the…