4 Loyal Opposition
pp. 51-53 · Read in the full issue
Is On Trial
In Micronesia
From a Saipan correspondent Assistant Trust Territory Public Defender Arthur Rothenburg has resigned his post here at the territorial headquarters to return to his former job as a public defender in Miami, Florida.
During his 14-month stay in Micro nesia, he was involved in several highly controversial court cases, in cluding the defence of some Greek sailors after the search and seizure of the Pacific Paul last December in Koror, and more recently the Bertha borja-Esperanza San Nicholas trial on Guam.
Two months ago, however, Rothen burg and Jose A. Tenorio, an assis tant, were arrested for “obstructing justice” in their own office during another police search. With a warrant signed by TT Chief Justice Harold Burnett and on order from the Attorney-General, police were search ing for evidence against Chief TT Public Defender Roger St Pierre, a 10-year veteran at the job and often regarded as a “thorn in the side of the administration”. St Pierre was off the island at the time.
Rothenberg said it was during his arrest that he decided to leave Micro nesia. “On November 21, when local police, led by TT Police Superinten dent Carl Lindh, entered my office with a search warrant and arrested my assistant and me when we refused to co-operate, I realised no effective rule of law exists in the Trust Terri tory,” Rothenburg said the day before he left the territory. “The govern ment is free to do anything it pleases, even against men of the stature of St Pierre who has been the only American in Micronesia during the past 10 years to stand up for the rights of the people. The Congress of Micronesia has passed resolutions praising him . . . and the American government officials here send the police to raid his office.”
Rothenburg said that when St Pierre returned to Saipan he expected to be arrested on “trumped-up” charges.
Now, however, two months had passed since the police raids (the Majuro Public Defender’s Office was also searched the same day) . . .
“nothing has happened,” said Rothen burg. “No arrest, no charges, nothing.
Our civil rights were denied. The safeguards contained in the 4th and
sth Amendments of the US Constitu tion thrown to the wind. There is nothing that can be done legally in the Trust Territory.
“While I was in police custody during the search, I demanded to be brought before a magistrate and re leased on bond. I tried to telephone the Attorney-General and the High Commissioner but to no avail. I was shouting against the storm.”
Rothenburg said police searched every file, drawer, broke into a desk and filing cabinets with an electric drill, and xeroxed documents.
This writer, who, by coincidence, visited the office during the search, learned police were searching for papers relating to a Marshall Islands court case where St Pierre twice re fused, but later accepted a $7,500 “gift” for successfully settling a $30,000 estate three years ago.
“There was nothing illegal about it,” St Pierre said.
Rothenburg said his arrest, coupled with the government’s poor attempts to bring charges against St Pierre, prove that “. . . all illegal avenues of justice in the Trust Territory are closed. I prefer to return to Miami where the ‘system’ still works.
“The Interior Department has a policy here,” he said, “to govern and hold these islands. High Commis sioners, judges, bureaucrats, all political appointees, are sent here to execute that policy. The Congress of Micronesia is the only avenue for change here. Change cannot occur through the courts or through the law in Micronesia.”
Yet, Rothenburg said there is cause for optimism. “Micronesians are aware of the TT’s ‘holding action’ policies. After failing to find relief in the TT courts recently, 10 Saipan residents lost a lawsuit in the Hawaii Federal Court to stop ho t! construc tion next to the island’s best public beach area. The Eniwetok people, too, went to the Hawaii courts and successfully, at least temporarily, halted an Air Force ‘cratering experi ment’ on their tiny islands . . .”
Concerning the role of the Public Defender’s Office in Micronesia, Rothenburg said: “A man who fights for the rights of the people in Micro nesia as St Pierre has done during the last 10 years is fighting a lonely battle. But St Pierre built the office into the most respected agency in the government.”
Why does the government want to remove St Pierre?
“His independence,” Rothenburg said. “The Public Defender plays the role of the ‘loyal opposition’, and answers to the Secretary of the In terior. But for some reasons known only to top officials here, this ad versary system to them is dangerous.
The ‘loyal opposition’ apparently isn’t loyal enough.
“St Pierre, who has had resolutions passed by that congress commending his decade of work in Micronesia, has the administration scrambling to piece together the flimsiest of cases, invading his office in attempts to prosecute and remove him.
“In Micronesia, the ‘loyal oppo sition’ refused to get in with the gin drinking, back-scratching mob that runs this government. As a result, the government wants to eliminate it.”