FOLLOWING the U.S. Supreme Court’s order denying Lili Zhang Tydingco’s petition for a writ of certiorari, the District Court of the NMI on Friday ordered her to self-surrender to the Department of Corrections on May 16 at 8 a.m.
In July 2022, a jury, for the third time, found Tydingco guilty of one count of harboring a minor alien.
After her sentencing on Jan. 18, 2023, Tydingco appealed for the third time to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In June 2024, the Ninth Circuit affirmed her conviction.
Represented by attorney Bruce Berline, Tydingco then requested the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, a formal request for the high court to review a decision made by a lower court.
On April 1, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Tydingco’s request.
At a status hearing on May 9, Berline asked the district court to allow his client to self-surrender on May 16, which Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona granted.
She also told the defendant that failure to surrender constitutes a separate criminal offense.
Berline also requested that the court allow his client to serve her prison sentence on Saipan.
The judge ordered Tydingco to remain free until the scheduled self-surrender date.
Previously, the district court sentenced Tydingco to 90 days in prison and ordered her to pay a $100 special assessment fee.
During the trial, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Garth Backe and Albert Flores Jr. appeared for the federal government and called five witnesses, including the minor who was already18 years old.
In June 2016, Tydingco and her husband, Francisco Muna Tydingco, were convicted of harboring a 10-year-old girl they brought from China in 2013.
The jury found Mrs. Tydingco guilty of harboring an alien and Mr. Tydingco guilty of aiding and abetting his wife.
On Dec. 9, 2016, Mrs. Tydingco was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment, while Mr. Tydingco was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment.
The Tydingcos appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which remanded their conviction for a new trial. The Ninth Circuit judges said the jury could have convicted the defendants on an invalid theory.
On May 10, 2019, the U.S. government opted not to pursue the charge against Mr. Tydingco and asked the federal court to dismiss the case against him.
But the U.S. government refiled a superseding indictment against Mrs. Tydingco, charging her with harboring an illegal minor alien.
In September 2019, following two and a half hours of deliberation, jurors found Mrs. Tydingco guilty of one count of harboring a minor alien.
On June 17, 2020, Judge Manglona sentenced Mrs. Tydingco to 90 days imprisonment for harboring a minor alien.
The defendant appealed to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which, in Feb. 2022, once again reversed her conviction and remanded the case to the District Court for the NMI.
The Ninth Circuit said the district court abused its discretion in admitting sham-marriage and witness-tampering testimony during the trial.
