Rep Quinlan to Constituent: "Get the F*** Out!"
Defense Attorneys Part of Kealoha Conspiracy, Coverup
CB: … The latest indictment says she wrote the search warrant that was used to justify the early morning drug raid. And while she knew her brother was a source of some of the drugs, she withheld that information from HPD investigators.
She also blocked police detectives from interviewing Masunaga or Ahn about the drugs and where they came from.
Honolulu police reports, however, told an incomplete story, one that practically omitted Kealoha from the picture….
A third person in the home, Meagan Fujimoto, was not apprehended or charged. Fujimoto had a family relationship to Nguyen, who had previously been married to Kealoha’s niece…..
Masunaga hired local attorney Myles Breiner to defend her in the criminal case….
But in May 2016 — in the midst of defending Masunaga — he took on Kealoha and her husband as clients to help shield them from federal investigators.
That meant Breiner was playing both sides in Masunaga’s criminal case….
“To me, this was probably the most obvious and egregious conflict an attorney could get into,” Harrison said….
“How can you be zealous in the advocacy of your client when you’re representing both the prosecutor and the defendant and the prosecutor has an interest in your client because your client has damaging information regarding a family member?”
Federal prosecutors, too, worried about Breiner’s conflicts in the case.
After they indicted the Kealohas, they filed a motion to have Breiner kicked off the case. They said among other things that his relationship with the Kealohas was fraught with conflicts of interest, some more serious than others.
Federal investigators filed court documents alleging Kealoha passed along a confidential informant’s name to Breiner so that he could then relay that information to his client in the gambling case.
That client, Tracy Yoshimura, eventually told federal investigators that he believed Kealoha wanted to curry favor with Breiner so that he would represent the Kealohas in the federal corruption case.
Yoshimura said at the time he was blown away that a city prosecutor would reveal the name of an informant to anyone, much less a criminal suspect in an ongoing case. “I know that people can get murdered for that,” he said….
The government’s motion to disqualify Breiner also highlighted his potential conflicts in the Masunaga case.
In particular, prosecutors pointed out that during one proceeding Breiner and Kealoha had participated in an “off the record” conversation with Rom Trader, who was a judge in the case.
They also mentioned that Kealoha herself was having secret conversations with Masunaga while she was actively prosecuting her on drug charges.
According to federal prosecutors, Kealoha began sending Masunaga encrypted text messages via Signal as a means to avoid detection from anyone who might be peeking in.
In court documents, federal prosecutors say they recovered more than 500 pages of messages from these surreptitious communications, including several exchanges from July 26, 2016….
That same day, Masunaga told Kealoha that Breiner had called her to discuss a change of plea in the case.
“Omg, ruler of the world #ROW.” Kealoha wrote.
“Go TEAM!” Masunaga said.
“GO TEAM!!!” Kealoha echoed. “Can’t wait for this shit to be over.”
“Ditto,” Masunaga responded. “Then we’re free.”…
KITV: City Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro is expected in court Monday for a hearing on a petition calling for his impeachment.
read … How An Accused Drug Dealer Became Key To The Biggest Corruption Case In Honolulu History
When it comes to the ex-police chief’s legal defense, things just got more complicated
HNN:… Last week, Honolulu attorney Kevin Sumida appeared before the Honolulu Police Commission for a contested case hearing over whether city taxpayers should pay for the defense for Louis Kealoha, the former police chief. … Sumida has been off the criminal case since officially withdrawing in 2017. He and co-counsel Myles Breiner told the court the Kealohas could not afford them….
read … When it comes to the ex-police chief’s legal defense, things just got more complicated
Maui Corp Counsel Girlfriend ‘Transferred out to Avoid Appearance of Nepotism’
MN: … Mayor Michael Victorino said his administration plans to hand over the case of Corporation Counsel Patrick Wong to the Hawaii Department of the Attorney General.
Wong, 53, was placed on administrative leave Saturday after being arrested on physical abuse charges. Victorino said Sunday evening that Maui police were working to complete their investigation and interviews so they could turn over their reports to the attorney general’s office. He said he was hoping to get a response from the attorney general later this week.
“We would have to finish our investigation, provide that evidence to the AG’s office, then the AG can turn around and file the charges, whatever it might be,” Victorino said….
Maui police spokesman Lt. Gregg Okamoto said Saturday night that Wong had posted the $1,000 bail and been released. The case had been referred to the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, but to avoid any conflict of interest, the department decided to refer the case to the state attorney general, Victorino said. The department is also currently without a permanent director; former Prosecuting Attorney John D. Kim was voted out by the County Council last month, and former Council Member Don Guzman has been nominated in his place.
Victorino said he was “not at liberty” to share any other details of what led to Wong’s arrest. He did confirm that the woman was Wong’s girlfriend and that she had been working in the Department of the Corporation Counsel when Victorino came into office. Victorino said he decided to transfer her to the Office of Management in an attempt to “eliminate or lessen any nepotism that may have been pre-existing.”
Wong served under Mayor Alan Arakawa and was appointed by Victorino to continue in his position. The council denied him in a close 5-4 vote on Feb. 5 but went on to confirm him after Council Member Tasha Kama changed her stance on Feb. 22.
For council members who opposed Wong, the arrest echoes concerns they had about him during the confirmation process.
“During the confirmation process, I brought up his aggression toward women in the workplace,” said Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, vice-chairwoman of the council. “It was something that I questioned him about. He dismissed the allegations, saying he was defending his honor. To me, it was just an excuse, because the testifier did come, and she did say that she wasn’t being aggressive.”
Rawlins-Fernandez was referring to testifier Autumn Ness, an executive assistant to former Council Member Elle Cochran….
read … County plans to turn over Wong case to state AG
Lawsuit Claims HPD Officer Sexually Assaulted Woman
CB: … By her own admission, Sarah Vargas was behaving badly when the police came to her home in March 2017. But Vargas alleges in a lawsuit filed in federal District Court that a Honolulu police officer behaved much worse.
Vargas alleges Officer David Oh, who has since left the force, sexually assaulted her after being called to investigate a domestic disturbance. Vargas said she was drunk and had been fighting with her friend, Jessica Reyes. Vargas was so drunk, in fact, that she urinated on the floor and punched Reyes hard enough to break her nose, according to the lawsuit.
Vargas was wearing only a bathrobe when police arrived in response to her 911 call, the suit says, and when Oh’s partner, Officer Corporal Costa, took Reyes outside to get her statement, Oh took Vargas to the bedroom and had sex with her….
Oh served with the department from 2013 to 2018 and is no longer employed there, although Costa is still there.
The suit says Oh has not been charged with any crime, and that any responsibility for prosecuting him was transferred from the Honolulu prosecutor to the state attorney general’s office Feb. 27 “for fear that the investigation and prosecution of Officer Oh may have been tainted by possible collusion between policy-making members of HPD and the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney in the desire to protect criminally liable HPD Officers.”
While Oh has left the department, it’s unclear whether he was disciplined. Under Hawaii law, county police departments submit annual reports on incidents of police misconduct to the Legislature. The reports include basic information on disciplinary action taken against the officers. However, the information in the reports is scant and does not identify officers by name, even those suspended or discharged….
Her husband was stationed at Pearl Harbor and deployed with the Navy at the time of the incident.
The morning after the incident, Vargas had a rape test done at Tripler Army Medical Center, which confirmed she had been assaulted, the complaint says.
The Navy moved the family to California so they would be out of Honolulu police jurisdiction, Mackintosh said….
read … Another Day in the HPD
HB210: Lower Voter Participation by Making Hawaii Elections More Complicated and Annoying
CB: … The Hawaii Legislature has considered a number of bills to revise Hawaii’s electoral system and voting process. One is House Bill 210, which would change the way we vote in partisan primary races to a ranked choice method, also known as an instant run-off….
Instead of voting against a candidate or an issue, ranked choice voting allows the electorate the option of a hot/cold slider bar on what is most important and least important to them.
In theory, ranked choice voting is an outstanding approach to democracy. The problem, however, is that Hawaii already suffers from poor voter participation and many voters struggle with contests that include large fields of candidates like those often running for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees. Blank votes in some instances add up to more than those for the candidates, suggesting people either didn’t know how to vote or didn’t have the patience to follow through that far down the ballot.
Anyone who has volunteered to staff a polling station or worked on a political campaign knows that voters get easily agitated and impatient with the way the current primary ballot is designed. Senior citizens, in particular, are sometimes so overwhelmed or intimidated by their ballots that they often need someone to assist them in the booth with how to vote.
Adding an extra layer of activity to a ballot could have the fallout of making Hawaii elections more complicated, more annoying, and more deterring to citizens who already aren’t stepping up to their civic duty….
HB210: Text, Status
2013: LA Times: California ‘Non-Partisan’ Primary ‘Weakened Democracy’
2011 Debate on RCV/Instant Runoff:
read … When Reforming Primaries, Make Sure Voters Understand
SB557: Hawaii to not likely become Second ‘Sanctuary State’ for Illegals
SA: … Senate Bill 557, introduced by state Sen. Karl Rhoads (D, Downtown-Nuuanu-Liliha), survived a vote on the Senate floor last week and has been referred to House committees. (FOUR House Committees on Referral Sheet … uh … TWENTY-SEVEN … LOL!)
If it becomes law, local law enforcement agencies could choose not to participate in federal searches for undocumented immigrants if they have not been convicted of crimes and have been paying their taxes, according to Rhoads….
The bill would not protect undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of a felony or convicted of a misdemeanor within the past five years, are wanted by federal law enforcement agencies, are suspected of involvement in terrorist activity or are convicted sex offenders against minors. It also would not extend to those who have illegally crossed the U.S. border a second time after having been deported.
(IQ Test: Do you believe any of the stuff that is crossed out?)
There were 253,414 immigrants in Hawaii in 2015, approximately 45,000 of them undocumented, according to the measure….
Honolulu police Maj. Mark Cricchio submitted testimony saying SB 557 would “pit federal law enforcement against local law enforcement” and affect federal funding.
“It will instead hamper police efforts to keep our community safe by threatening the local police department’s ability to qualify for essential federal funding,” Cricchio said….
(CLUE: Illegal immigration is a trap. Take half of immigration and never get the whole thing. The result is a permanent class of people who need politicians to protect them from the law. Illegals crowd into Democrat Congressional Districts and get counted for apportionment thus giving Democrats more representation in Congress.)
Big Q: Should Hawaii become a “sanctuary state” that shields tax-paying undocumented immigrants with no criminal convictions by allowing local law enforcement to refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities? 77% say ‘NO’
SB 557: Text, Status
read … State lawmakers advance bill to protect immigrants
HB1464: HMSA Underpays Doctors
SA: … “One reason for the growing physician shortage is a lack of adequate reimbursement rates. This $24 per-member- per-month rate has not changed despite increasing costs to live and practice in Hawaii and statewide increases in the minimum wage,” the bill said. “Based on this rate, a solo practitioner must work over 200 hours per month and care for over 1,500 patients to receive a fair and reasonable salary, not including costs for overhead, staff, or supplies.”…
A number of physicians testified that the current doctor shortage, particularly on the neighbor islands, is attributed in large part to “inadequate” reimbursements under the current payment model. High-quality primary care requires reimbursement rates of between $45 and $64, twice the current rate from HMSA, said Dr. Michelle Mitchell of Hawaii Family Health in written testimony….
HB1464: Text, Status
read … HMSA’s payment rates under scrutiny
Manipulating Renewable Energy Definitions to Achieve Goals
IM: … State law requires that Hawai`i generate 100% of its electricity from renewable energy resources by 2045, or more correctly, that is how the law is interpreted by many.
The State House passed a bill this year to expand the definition of renewable energy. Some believe it would usher in micro and mini nuclear reactors. Others feel it would allow the use of coal blended with biomass to be counted as renewable energy.
Charging an electric car at night on O`ahu means getting off gasoline by using coal.
The AES coal plant in Campbell Industrial Park supplies about 15-20% of O`ahuʻs electrical supply. Could a few tropical rainforest trees be chopped down, shipped in by a diesel-powered boat and used to supplement coal as a fuel for the AES facility, and thus convert all the coal to be counted as renewable energy?
The universe is made up of matter-energy which cannot be created nor destroyed, it can only change forms, thus renewable energy is not a scientific term, but is a political term, subject to lobbying efforts by private commercial interests, including those who only do business behind closed doors.
HB 307 had only one hearing with 20 minutes notice and no written or oral testimony. When a similar bill was heard in 2016 there were no examples given regarding what the bill meant. Speculation currently focuses on coal and nuclear but the bill might mean something else….
read … Manipulating Hawai`i Definitions to Achieve Goals
Gabbard declines to call Syria's Assad a war criminal
TH: … Asked by Bash whether she believed Assad was a war criminal, Gabbard said she thought "evidence needs to be gathered."
“I think that the evidence needs to be gathered and, as I have said before, if there is evidence that he has committed war crimes, he shall be prosecuted as such,” Gabbard said.
“But you are not sure now?” Bash pressed in response.
“Everything that I have said requires that we take action based on evidence. [If] the evidence is there, there should be accountability,” Gabbard replied.
Gabbard has previously been criticized for meeting with Assad in 2017, and drew criticism for her comments last month when she said that she did not believe "Assad is not the enemy of the United States."
Gabbard has previously defended her 2017 meeting with Assad, saying last month that it's "important for any leader in this country to be willing to meet with others, whether they be friends or adversaries or potential adversaries." ….
CNN: Gabbard says she served with some Trannies, but no Bisexuals
Kos: Tulsi Gabbard's Bigotry Problem
read … Gabbard declines to call Syria's Assad a war criminal
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