By Steve LimtiacoFor My Jungle Rules
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Guam Office of Civil Defense Administrator Charles Esteves on Friday pleaded not guilty to domestic violence charges during an arraignment hearing in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
Esteves, 42, attended the hearing via video conference from Guam, represented by D.C.-based attorney Jason Kalafat.
Esteves is charged with assault and attempted threats and faces a maximum penalty of 180 days in prison if convicted.
Judge Heide Herrmann scheduled the next hearing for 9:30 a.m. July 17 and ordered Esteves to stay away from the victim in the case, Christianna Ebio, and to avoid contacting her. Esteves said there is an ongoing custody battle in Guam for their infant child. Herrmann said she would make an exception for any necessary contact related to the custody case.
According to the complaint in the domestic violence case, Esteves became upset with his girlfriend in a hotel room at the Washington Hilton at about 3 a.m. on March 23. He allegedly squeezed her neck with both hands, urinated on her belongings, and threatened to kill her family.
Ebio, a Guam resident, returned to D.C. with her mother and son on April 11 and filed a police report. She recorded what happened in the hotel room and showed the video to the police. She also has a protective order against Esteves in the Guam court.
Documents state she was in an “on-and-off” relationship with Esteves for five years, and they have an infant child together.
Esteves also faces charges in the Superior Court of Guam, where prosecutors have accused him of official misconduct in connection with his role as a certifying officer at Civil Defense. A certifying officer’s job at an agency is to verify and certify that government payments at the agency are legal and proper.
Charges were brought against Esteves in April following a December 2024 investigative audit by the Office of Public Accountability, which exposed alleged widespread abuse of overtime pay at Civil Defense, where Esteves has been the administrator since 2015.
According to the audit, the GHS/OCD administrator “continuously paid large amounts of overtime pay” between fiscal 2018 and 2021.
The audit states that the overtime payments did not follow federal or local law, were improperly authorized, and most of the required supporting documents are missing.
The report also cited discrepancies in the supervisor signatures on some timesheets, stating the signatures don’t match.
A Superior Court grand jury indicted Esteves on April 16 on charges of malfeasance and official misconduct, with a special allegation of crime against the community. Five other Civil Defense employees face similar charges in the Guam court in connection with the alleged overtime abuse.