Bordallo Wins Appeal

By David North

FORMER Guam Governor Ricardo J Bordallo heard good news from the US Courts a few days before Amer ican Samoa delegate Fofo Sunia left Con gress. Bordallo had been convicted of accepting bribes from businessmen and drew a nine-year jail term: the sentence and most of his convictions were overturned by a three-nil decision of a US Appeals Court in San Francisco.

Both Sunia and Bordallo are islanders and Democrats, both were successfully prosecuted by the Reagan Administration for alleged corruption, and both (despite well-publicised charges) were elected as delegates to the Democratic convention that nominated Michael Dukakis for President. But the similarities^d there.

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Bordallo escaped from the bribery charges because the court found such bribery was only a crime if it involves state officials and Bordallo was a territorial one. The lower court apparently had not noticed this remarkable hole in the law.

Bordallo and Sunia reacted differently to the charges: Bordallo fought his indict ment, then appealed his convictions.

Sunia, having agreed to plead guilty, has a result no access to any appeals process.

The US Government in Bordallo’s case may appeal the Circuit Court ruling to the Supreme Court but that court hears only a small minority of the appeals brought to its attention, in effect confirm ing the lower courts’ decision by refusing to entertain the case. □