Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Paul Suba's Blue House probe still a mystery

Weeks after the Guam Blog filed a request with police for information about an internal investigation regarding the Blue House case, the department has yet to respond to the request. The request concerns an investigation called for by former Police Chief Paul Suba regarding alleged inappropriate police involvement in a Tamuning brothel. The investigation was ordered by Paul Suba in 2008, according to Guam Blog files, and was "in response to information received about Blue House victims/witnesses who alleged a Mario, Tony and another officer frequented the Blue House." But the result of Suba's investigation, which could shed light on whether the department knew of any officer's involvement in the brothel, remains a mystery. A series of reports by the Guam Blog last year prompted the government to launch a special investigation into Blue House, resulting in the indictment of three police officers. During the course of that special investigation, the fact that Suba had ordered a similar investigation years earlier was made public. But it still is unclear if Suba's investigation ever was completed or what it found. If the police department investigated the allegations against officers internally in 2008, the agency was required by local law to release a report on the findings on the department website. There are no findings on the website for that investigation. On April 25, the Pacific Daily News filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the department, asking for documents related to Suba's call for an investigation. The request asked for all documents related to the investigation, including the original complaint and testimonies as well as any conclusions made and what action, if any, was taken against anybody found to have been involved with the brothel. But two weeks after Chief Fred Bordallo acknowledged his receipt of the request, the newspaper hasn't received a response approving or denying it. Under Guam's Sunshine Law, government agencies are required to release public documents within four working days of the request. In some circumstances, though, that time limit can be extended up to 10 days, including weekends and holidays. As of yesterday, however, the PDN hadn't received a request to extend the time limit. Suba's request for an internal investigation wasn't acknowledged publicly until last November, when Bordallo released a preliminary disposition, noting Suba's prior order for an investigation. The Blue House lounge was a brothel that operated in Tamuning between 2004 and 2008. The brothel lured women from the Federated States of Micronesia with the promise of high-paying waitress jobs, After they arrived, however, brothel owner Song Ja Cha would confiscate their passports and force them into prostitution, according to the federal court case against her. She was found guilty of sex trafficking in federal court and sentenced to life in prison. She faces similar charges in local court, but has appealed to the island's Supreme Court, arguing she cannot be tried twice for the same crime. Two officers arrested in the Blue House case, Anthony Quenga and David Manila, are facing trial with Cha on prostitution and criminal sexual conduct charges. Officer Mario Laxamana entered a plea agreement earlier this year with prosecutors. He agreed to plead guilty to felonious restraint in exchange for his testimony at trial.