John Santos is seen after a bail hearing yesterday. Photo by Cherrie Anne Villahermosa Marianas Variety.
CNMI News
Thursday November 22, 2007
Son of police officer arrested for copper wire theft
By Cherrie Anne E. Villahermosa Variety News Staff
THE 18-year-old son of a police officer was arrested on Tuesday after he was caught at the La Fiesta III building in San Roque with individuals who were loading copper wire into a pick up truck.
John Santos Jr., the son of Sgt. Bernard Santos, Department of Public Safety’s Boating Safety Section commander, was brought to Superior Court yesterday morning for a hearing.
The police detective who arrested the suspect was called to testify yesterday before Associate Judge David A. Wiseman to determine if there was probable cause to arrest and charge Santos Jr. with the offense of burglary and theft.
Wiseman, after hearing the testimony of the detective, said there was probable cause to arrest Santos Jr. and ordered the defendant to be placed under house arrest.
Wiseman allowed Santos Jr. to post a $10,000 appearance bond and be released from custody through a third party custodian, Sgt. Hillary Tagabuel.
Wiseman ordered the defendant not to leave his house without his third party custodian or his father.
Santos Jr. was ordered to stay away from his co-defendants Roland Kaipat, 26; Vicente Kaipat, 27; and Jeff C. Magofna, 26.
Assistant Attorney General Melissa Simms said the government would not object if Santos Jr. was released from the custody because he has been very cooperative in the ongoing investigation.
Sgt. Santos told the court that a private lawyer will be hired to defend his son.
Sgt. Santos declined to comment further.
Sgt. Tagabuel said the defendant is a “good man.”
DPS spokeswoman Lei Ogumoro said the police detective was doing a routine patrol at the La Fiesta III building in San Roque on Tuesday at 1 p.m. when he saw a green Toyota pick-up truck parked near the La Fiesta III building and two men loading rolls of copper wire into the bed of the truck.
When the officer approached the individuals, the two suspects fled on foot along with another suspect who was in the building.
The responding officer was able to detain a fourth suspect who was identified later as John T. Santos. At the time of the incident, he was acting as a lookout.
Police discovered that a quantity of copper wire had been cut from the location.
The detective in his testimony yesterday said that they recovered 15 rolls of copper wire from the truck.
DPS said the three other suspects have not yet been arrested and are still at large.
Anyone having information about this crime should call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 234-7272. All calls are kept anonymous, no caller ID is used and a reward of up to $1,000 is given for any information leading to an arrest.
