By Troy Torres
A woman called Guam Police Department's Agat Precinct on January 22 to arrest a man for terrorizing her. She even provided the officers a recording of the man telling his colleague to assault her in a phone conversation. The officers did not arrest the man, and instead closed the case, stuck the file in an archive, and will be doing nothing about it.
"The report was filed for records purposes," police spokesman Sgt. Paul Tapao confirmed to Kandit today. "Reports that are filed for records purposes are not forwarded to the [Office of the Attorney General]. This is a form of documentation with authorities."
The woman who made the complaint is seaport chief of police Doris Aguero. The man who made the threatening comment is seaport worker and former police reservist Paul Salas, who works in the port's safety office. Mr. Salas is no stranger to crime. He was convicted in 2002 of official misconduct involving the bribery of a prostitute. He was arrested again in 2013 for stealing government property.
Ms. Aguero called police on January 22 after Kandit aired a recording of a phone conversation between Salas and another male seaport employee. In the recording, Salas tells his colleague to assault Aguero, then to claim mental anguish on the job and make a false filing for worker's compensation. Police officers from the Agat precinct command took the complaint at the seaport, but did not arrest Mr. Salas.
Kandit followed up with GPD the following week. Special Assistant to the Chief of Police (SACOP) Lt. Steve Amaguin told Kandit the case had not resulted in an arrest and it was because the case was closed for records purposes.
"If a case is filed or closed for records purposes, it is because the complainant asked that a police report be generated and filed for records purposes only, not for an arrest," Lt. Amaguin said.
Kandit then checked with seaport officials who confirmed that Ms. Aguero DID NOT request that her criminal complaint against Mr. Salas for terrorizing be filed for record keeping purposes only.
We confronted Lt. Amaguin with this information last week. Yesterday the SACOP said the filing for record-keeping purposes may have been an oversight and that "the case has now been closed and sent to the Attorney General's Office for disposition."
When asked whether GPD recommended the prosecution of the crime of terrorizing, Lt. Amaguin said that is "at the discretion of the AG's Office."
So, Kandit checked with the AG's office Tuesday night. Today, AG's spokeswoman Carlina Charfauros verified the information from GPD was not correct.
"The [Office of the Attorney General] has not received a police complaint in connection with media reports of an incident that took place at the Port between the Chief of Police and an Employee. Please check with GPD on the status of this and for more information." - statement from Ms. Charfauros
Today's communication on this matter between Kandit and Sgt. Tapao may be viewed below in WhatsApp messages (Kandit on the right, Tapao on the left):
