Another motion filed over judge's romance with prosecutor

by Mindy Aguon

Guam - Over the last week there's been a considerable amount of attention placed on a Superior Court of Guam judge's personal relationship with a prosecutor from the Attorney General's Office. While the judge has already denied two objections to have him removed from presiding over criminal cases, one defense attorney has filed a motion to take things one step further.

Defense attorney Randy Cunliffe has filed a motion in the Superior Court, asking to be allowed to depose assistant attorneys general.  Based on an ex-parte motion filed on Monday, Cunliffe believes that the only way he can obtain information from two prosecutors is through a deposition as he informed the court that the alleged deponents have indicated they will not voluntarily provide the information. Cunliffe notes that the proposed deponents are lawyers practicing in Guam and he believes they have pertinent information to supplement his objection to Judge James Canto presiding over his client, Kyle Blas', criminal case. 

In his declaration filed with the court Cunliffe indicated that he has spoken with Attorney Matt Heibel, who agreed it would be best to approach the judge who is assigned the recusal matter to obtain authorization to take the depositions that he believes contains relevant and important information crucial to his objection. 

The defense has taken issue with judge canto's personal relationship with an assistant attorney general.  Canto has said his romantic relationship with Richelle Yu has been no secret and there is nothing improper about it because she does not appear before his court as a prosecuting attorney of record on any criminal case he doesn't believe there is a conflict. Additionally, Canto says he has remained fair and impartial and has no personal bias for or against the prosecution or the defense. 

Canto reaffirmed his position in denying a similar objection filed by Norman James, Jr., who was also seeking to have the judge disqualified. The judge maintains the objection failed to offer any proof of actual bias but is instead based almost entirely on speculation.

An ex-parte hearing in Blas' case was scheduled to be heard this afternoon but Superior Court Judge Michael Bordallo indicated that the files were sent back to the presiding judge for assignment.  Cunliffe declined to comment about his motion, but Chief Prosecutor Basil O'Mallan doesn't believe the defense should depose any of his prosecutors. "We believe that would be inappropriate," he noted, "because everything our attorneys do is attorney work product, and so we would be opposed to any depositions of prosecutors."

The matter was yet to be assigned to another judge.