TNP v. Kogvuron

Gaspo

Gaspo

TNPer
The Court of The North Pacific is now in session, and will hear the case of The North Pacific v. Kogvuron.

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Indictment​
In the name of the nations of The North Pacific, an indictment under The North Pacific Legal Code is filed against Kogvuron, alleging the defendant broke the oath he swore on joining the Regional Assembly by not providing the Registrar with World Assembly information.

The defendant has not notified the Registrar of Confidential Puppets of any nations he controls that may join the World Assembly. Neither has he notified the Registrar of the World Assembly nation he currently controls. Neither has he declared to the Registrar that he does not control any nations in the World Assembly, or that may join in the future. Because such activity is in violation of the laws of The North Pacific, the defendant has broken the oath he swore upon joining the Regional Assembly. The defendant was given a clear deadline to come into compliance with this law or face legal action, and received a private message from the Registrar on the forum and two telegrams from the Speaker sent to his nation in The North Pacific to that effect over the course of 13 days.
Legal Code Chapter 6:
4. Applicants must swear an oath, as follows:
Code: 
[nation]TNP Nation[/nation]
[nation]WA Nation[/nation]

I, [forum user name], leader of The North Pacific nation of (your TNP nation's name), pledge loyalty to the region, to abide by its laws, and to act as a responsible member of its society. I pledge to only register one Nation to vote in The North Pacific. I pledge that no nation under my control will wage war against the North Pacific. I understand that if I break this oath I may immediately lose my voting privileges, permanently. In this manner, I petition the Speaker for membership in the Regional Assembly of the North Pacific.
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Legal Code Chapter 6:
12. Assembly members with a World Assembly nation must inform the registrar of any nation of theirs which may attain World Assembly membership before it does so.
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Kogvuron is hereby charged with committing the following act as defined by the Legal Code:
Failure to Provide WA Information:
12. Assembly members with a World Assembly nation must inform the registrar of any nation of theirs which may attain World Assembly membership before it does so.
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Pursuant to Chapter 3, Section 3.3, Clauses 12 and 13 respectively, of the Legal Code, which state that "when seeking an indictment to eject or ban, or expel from the RA due to oath violation, pending a trial, the Government must inform all the Justices," and "[a]ny Justice may approve or deny an indictment, and their decision will be final," this indictment is respectfully submitted for judicial approval.

Sincerely,

Iro
Deputy Attorney General of The North Pacific
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Representing The North Pacific will be Iro, Prosecutor.
Representing the Defendant will be TBD.

Presiding over this case will be Gaspo, Justice and Trial Moderator, Hileville, Chief Justice, and Sanctaria, Associate Justice.

The Defendant is charged with one count of violating the above-specified elements of the Legal Code. As this is not an enumerated penal defense, the primary remedy available to the Prosecution is to request an order compelling expulsion from the Regional Assembly. The Defendant has 48 hours to enter a plea, at that time if no pleas is entered a default plea of "Not Guilty" will be entered for the Defendant. Furthermore, the Defendant is requested to notify the court as to who will be serving as their Attorney. If they do not do so then they will be listed as representing themselves, though they may alter this at any time. After this period has elapsed we will move into pretrial motions and the evidence discovery phase.

Kogvuron, how do you plead?
 
Your plea of Not Guilty is accepted. Pre-trial motions will be accepted until 11:59PM on Monday, March 4th, unless either party needs more time.
 
The prosecution wishes to call:

Crushing Our Enemies, Speaker of the Regional Assembly, to testify on Kogvuron's unwillingness to come into compliance with cited laws, as well as the lawful procedure in revealing one's World Assembly nation.

Former English Colony, W.A. Registrar, to testify on Kogvuron's failure to come into compliance with cited laws, as well as the lawful procedure in revealing one's World Assembly nation.
 
The period for pretrial motions has concluded, and Discovery has commenced. It will last 7 days, and will end at 11:59 PM EST on March 11th.

All parties are expected to abide precisely to the Court Rules.
 
Regarding the defendant's contention that CoE is biased. The defendant has not presented any argument supported in fact demonstrating CoE is biased.

Pursuant to Chapter 6 of the Legal Code, it is the job of the Speaker to maintain a roster of RA members:

9. The Speaker's office will maintain a publicly viewable roster of Regional Assembly members.
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All RA members are required to list their potential WA nations to the registrar:
12. Assembly members with a World Assembly nation must inform the registrar of any nation of theirs which may attain World Assembly membership before it does so.
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Thus CoE had a vested and material interest to maintain a valid list of RA members in/out compliance with the above law. CoE will testify that within the scope of that process, CoE discovered that the defendant was not in compliance with the law. His testimony is essential to the prosecution's case as The North Pacific has no other Speaker to speak to the material facts with which we shall base our case.
 
Any issues with a witness' impartiality may be addressed through cross-examination. Any bias should be obvious at that time - objections to witnesses testifying at all should be based on them having no relevant knowledge, being redundant, or other matters which make their entire testimony irrelevant or unlikely to be factual. Objection at this stage, overruled.
 
Gaspo:
Any issues with a witness' impartiality may be addressed through cross-examination. Any bias should be obvious at that time - objections to witnesses testifying at all should be based on them having no relevant knowledge, being redundant, or other matters which make their entire testimony irrelevant or unlikely to be factual. Objection at this stage, overruled.
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Thank you your honor.
 
Discovery has now ended. One piece of evidence has been submitted, and seeing no objection, I will admit the single forum post submitted. No witnesses have been deposed during this week, nor has any other evidence been submitted. The Court does not like to see allegations backed by so little evidence, but as some evidence has been submitted, the trial must proceed. Arguments on the Evidence and the Law may be made until 11:59PM EDT on Saturday, March 16th, 2013.
 
I understand the situation, but since the defense didn't submit anything as well and may have wanted to, is there a chance we could extend the timeline at all on mutual agreement? I see no problem if Kogvuron's legal team agrees.
 
This court has clearly defined timelines and schedules for a reason. Make your case, Counselor - there will be no extension without cause being shown.
 
This Court has no choice but to DISMISS WITH PREJUDICE. The Prosecution has completely failed to address the elements of the charge, to explain its evidence, or to submit any shred of argument at all. As such, they have not even approached meeting their burden of proof, and have conducted themselves in this trial in a manner which borders on incompetence.

In order to help people understand why a Dismissal is appropriate, we do not feel that, in the absence of any argument, a judgment on the merits can be reached. The Prosecution submitted one piece of evidence to this court, but made no effort to explain it, its relevance, or how it addresses the elements of the alleged crime. It is not for this Court to seek out guilty or innocence in the evidence, proactively, but to consider the arguments and evidence submitted and explained by both sides. In the absence of argument, however, we cannot in good conscience do this. Therefore, dismissal is more appropriate that a judgment on the merits, as would be indicated by a "guilty" or "not guilty" verdict.

As to the question of Jeopardy, we have a double jeopardy provision in the Bill of Rights to prevent repeat trials. Jeopardy "attaches", or becomes a bar to re-trial, at either the time at which the first arguments are submitted or the first witness is sworn or evidence is accepted. In this case, while no arguments were submitted by either party, evidence was accepted, and this trial has clearly progressed, in the opinion of the Court, to a point at which we are obligated to attach Jeopardy. So Jeopardy must be attached in this case, and therefore the case must be "Dismissed with Prejudice", which means that the matter is closed and may not be refiled by this or any future prosecutor.

The Court is Unanimous in this decision.

Edit: Spelling.
 
Wait a second, what are you talking about? I posted a long description of the prosecution's opinions right after you asked me for it. Was this simply skipped over or have I suddenly been placed under moderation approval without my knowledge?
 
Iro:
Wait a second, what are you talking about? I posted a long description of the prosecution's opinions right after you asked me for it. Was this simply skipped over or have I suddenly been placed under moderation approval without my knowledge?
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As an admin I can say that you are not on post moderation and that you have not made said post. It isn't hidden or located anywhere in this thread.
 
Well, barring the possibility that everyone goes blind when passing over the specific post that seems to have been ignored, I probably did something stupid like X out without pressing "Add Reply" or something along those lines.... I really should check over the posts I make after I make them. I take responsibility for that, and it seems I've let the AG down. Well, bad luck.
 
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