larslaw

As reported in PBN on 12/1/11:

Hawaii law professor Jon Van Dyke dies
Pacific Business News
Date: Wednesday, November 30, 2011, 12:03pm HST

Jon Van Dyke, a constitutional law professor at the University of Hawaii ’s Richardson School of Law, has died.

Van Dyke, who was 68, died in his sleep Tuesday while at a Law of the Sea conference in Australia, the law school said in a statement.

“Jon was admired, loved, and vitally important throughout a remarkable number of different circles of people stretching far beyond our Law School, but we were particularly and truly blessed to have the direct benefit of his many years of inspirational teaching and scholarship, remarkable public service, and deep and abiding friendship,” Dean Avi Soifer said in a letter to the students and faculty posted on the school’s website.

Van Dyke was the law school’s Carlsmith Ball Faculty Scholar, and the author of six books, including “Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawaii?,” which was published in 2008. He joined the UH faculty in 1976 and taught constitutional law, international law, international ocean law, and international human rights. Van Dyke also served as the law school’s associate dean from 1982-88.

Van Dyke is survived by his wife, Honolulu attorney Sherry Broder; daughter Michelle; and sons Eric and Jesse Broder Van Dyke, who is a spokesman for Sen. Daniel Akaka.

As reported today, 12.1.2011 in Pacific Business News:

Hawaii bankruptcy filings fall 26% in November
Pacific Business News
Date: Thursday, December 1, 2011, 11:31am HST
Related:
Bankruptcies

The number of bankruptcy filings in Hawaii fell by 26 percent last month compared to a year ago, according to statistics from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

There were 242 filings of all chapters of the U.S. bankruptcy code in November, compared to 327 filings during the same month in 2010.

The number of Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases, which are most often filed by individuals, fell 23.2 percent to 185 cases in November, compared to 241 cases in November 2010.

The number of Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases fell 30.5 percent to 57 filings last month, compared to 82 in November of last year.

There were no filings under other chapters of the code, such as Chapter 11 reorganization, in November, according to court statistics.

Year-to-date, bankruptcy filings for the first 11 months of the year were 21 percent lower than the same period in 2010.

There were a total of 3,115 bankruptcy filings from January through November, compared to 3,954 filings in 2010.

As reported in PBN:

Hawaii bankruptcy filings down 22% in July
Pacific Business News
Date: Monday, August 1, 2011, 12:36pm HST
Related: Bankruptcies

Hawaii saw a total of 268 bankruptcy filings in July, a 22.3 percent decline from the 345 filings recorded in July 2010, according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Out of the total number of filings, there were 221 Chapter 7 cases filed last month, down 14.7 percent from 259 cases in July of last year. There were also 45 Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings in July, down 46.4 percent from the 84 filings recorded a year ago.
In addition, there were two other cases filed last month, which was unchanged from July 2010, according to PBN research.
Filings fell in all counties, led by a 37.5 percent drop to 35 cases in Hawaii County; a 21.4 percent drop to 168 cases in Honolulu County; a 13.6 percent decline to 19 cases in Kauai County; and a 13.2 percent decline to 46 cases in Maui County.

Hawaii bankruptcy filings down 25.6 percent in June
By Erika Engle, Hawaii News Now

POSTED: 12:35 p.m. HST, Jul 01, 2011


Hawaii bankruptcy filings in June were down 25.6 percent from June of last year, largely in the numbers of Chapter 7 liquidation and Chapter 13 wage-earner cases.

Chapter 11 business reorganization filings were up with seven cases filed in June versus two a year ago.

The highest profile bankruptcy case last month was Hawaii Medical Center. The former St. Francis Medical Centers in Liliha and Ewa, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 21, less than a year after emerging from bankruptcy.

Hawaii Reporter:

Interestingly, a former PROSECUTOR files an ethics complaint!!!

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/ethics-complaint-filed-against-honolulu-prosecutor-kaneshiro/123

Hawaii Reporter:

Defense Lawyers Dispute Prosecutor Kaneshiro
BY JIM DOOLEY – Prominent criminal defense attorneys are scoffing at Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro’s stated positions that he will no longer plea bargain cases and that he is under no obligation to turn over certain evidence in criminal cases.

Keith Kaneshiro
In an exclusive interview yesterday with Hawaii Reporter, Kaneshiro said he is requiring his deputies to take cases to trial and will only plea bargain in rare instances such as when a prosecution witness is unavailable for trial or when the plea deal results in the same penalty as a trial conviction.
“He’s just political grandstanding,” said Myles Breiner, president of the Hawaii Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
“The fact of the matter is he has to plea bargain. There’s just too many cases and too many bad cases,” said Breiner.
Longtime criminal defense lawyer Brook Hart estimated that “90 per cent of cases are resolved through plea agreements.”
Jack Tonaki, head of the Hawaii Public Defender’s Office, said he thinks the figure is even higher.
“The reality is that if one day he says there will be no (plea) agreements, everything will pretty much come to a halt,” Tonaki said.
The same attorneys took exception to Kaneshiro’s position that his office doesn’t need to inform defense counsel if a prosecution witness has given inconsistent statements about a crime.
That position has prompted the filing of an ethical complaint against Kaneshiro with the state Bar Association’s disciplinary board.
Kaneshiro acknowledged yesterday that he did tell two deputies in his office that they did not have to inform the defense in a domestic violence case that the victim had given inconsistent statements about the crime.
“What the victim said was, her statement was a little bit different, she left out some facts so it was not totally consistent with earlier statements,” Kaneshiro said.
“There’s case law that says an inconsistent statement is not recantation, it is not discoverable (evidence)” which must be turned over to the defense, Kaneshiro said.

Myles Breiner
“That’s utter nonsense,” said Breiner today.
Court rules and federal and state case law “require disclosure of any statement by a percipient witness whether it supports or doesn’t support the prosecution theory of the case,” said Breiner.
Hart said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that “the Constitution requires the government when it has inconsistent evidence to turn it over to the defendant at the earliest possible time.”
There can be legitimate questions about whether information is relevant to a case, Hart said.
“It might or it might not be material. But the most enlightened prosecutors readily turn over all this information so that later, cases are not subject to reversal on appeal

Brook Hart
because of a failure to provide exculpatory evidence,” Hart said.
Tonaki cited a state criminal procedure rule which requires prosecutors to turn over evidence which would tend to negate the guilt or lower the potential punishment of a defendant.
The key phrase is “tend to negate,” said Tonaki.
“We always differ in our interpretation of the rules and ultimately its decided by the court but I think that if a material witness in a case changes their story, that may have the effect of tending to negate the guilt and it should be disclosed,” Tonaki said.
Several attorneys noted that in the high-profile rape prosecution now pending in New York against former World Bank President Dominique Strauss-Kahn, prosecutors informed the defendant’s attorneys of inconsistencies in statements given about the case by the complaining witness after Strauss-Kahn was charged.
And attorneys also questioned the accuracy of Kaneshiro’s assertion that the prosecutor’s office under previous head Peter Carlisle had a jury trial conviction rate of just 33 per cent.
Kaneshiro spokesman Dave Koga said today the office is gathering the data supporting the 33 per cent conviction rate figure.
In 2005, the Honolulu Advertiser published the results of a study that showed the felony trial conviction rate for Carlisle’s officer that year was 67 per cent. The same story said several times that the corresponding acquittal rate was 33 per cent.
Carlisle, now Honolulu Mayor, has not responded to requests for comment on Kaneshiro’s statements. Several of the 34 deputy prosecutors who left the office after Kaneshiro was sworn in have since gone to work in Carlisle’s administration.
Kaneshiro said some of the deputies departed because they preferred to plea-bargain cases and didn’t want to argue them in court.
Details of the ethics complaint filed against Kaneshiro are unknown because proceedings in the Office of Disciplinary Counsel are confidential.
Kaneshiro said Monday that the complaint was filed against Kaneshiro by a former high-ranking deputy prosecutor, Kevin Takata, who was forced out of the office after Kaneshiro was elected.
Takata has an “an axe to grind,” Kaneshiro said.
The disciplinary complaint “is completely untrue,” Kaneshiro said. “I have never told my deputies not to disclose discoverable material or exculpatory evidence.”
Takata, who is now a state deputy attorney general, declined to comment on the disciplinary complaint, saying it is confidential.
 


Short URL: http://www.hawaiireporter.com/?p=36875


http://www.hawaiireporter.com/defense-lawyers-dispute-prosecutor-kaneshiro/123

As reported on 6/2/11 in Pacific Business News:

Hawaii bankruptcy filings flat in May
Pacific Business News
Date: Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 2:23pm HST
Related:
Bankruptcies

Hawaii saw a total of 334 bankruptcy filings in May, down by less than 1 percent from the 336 filings that were recorded in May 2010, according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Hawaii.

Out of the total number of cases, there were 241 Chapter 7 bankruptcies filed; that’s down 10.4 percent from the 269 cases filed during the same month last year. There were also 93 Chapter 13 bankruptcies filed last month, up 40.9 percent compared to the 66 cases filed in May of last year.

In addition, no Chapter 11 cases were filed in either May 2011 or May 2010, according to PBN research.

Read more: Hawaii bankruptcy filings flat in May | Pacific Business News

As reported in the Honolulu Star Advertiser on 4/15/11:


Ignition interlock device freezes drivers' lifestyles, too
By Gene Park

I was three vodka sevens in on a date night, 11:30 p.m. Wednesday in Chinatown, and I wasn't sure whether my car would let me drive.

That's because on Monday I volunteered to have an ignition interlock device installed for one week. It can't be all that bad, right? 

I can tell you now: It's bad.

"Really?" my date said, as she climbed into my car and saw the wretched device and the mounted camera on my dashboard. "Really?"

"Please don't make me laugh," I pleaded. "I can't blow it right if I'm laughing." The fifth-grader in me let out a chuckle as I said that last sentence.

I swallowed my pride (and some saliva) as I wrapped my lips around the mouthpiece. I blew, my cheeks puffed like a puffer fish. Three seconds later and I started humming (you have to in order to pass).

My date quivered as she held in her laughter. She looked like she was getting electrocuted. I looked like an idiot.

Of course, I laughed. The device's screen showed "abort hum." That doesn't count as a fail; it just means I have to keep trying again. I think I got it right on my fourth try.

I passed, because even though I had had three cocktails, it was over a period of five hours, and I'd had several glasses of water.

If I had one drink and tried it out, there was a chance I could've gotten a fail, and my car's ignition would refuse to start. That's because the device doesn't let you drive if you're over .02 percent breath alcohol concentration, well below the .08 legal limit.

I forced this embarrassment upon myself because I wanted to help dispel any notion to readers that getting arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol for the first time is not a big deal because the recently implemented law allows those arrested to drive if they have this device.

It's an option for first-time offenders who wish to continue to drive.

So far this year, as of April 11, 201 people have opted to have the device installed in their cars, according to state records.

That's out of about 1,700 DUI arrests in 2011, although it's uncertain how many of those were eligible to have the device installed.

But even I wasn't prepared for how disruptive this thing can be to one's lifestyle. Several notes:

» It's hard to blow into. It took me two days to learn the proper technique (stop laughing). I've been late to appointments because I wasn't able to get my car started in time.

Just the past two days, I've gotten used to how to properly let out enough air while humming, so I've been consistent in starting my car.

» It randomly tests you as you drive. I was told the first one is always within 15 minutes. But in the past few days, the despicable device has beeped me for a test within three minutes of me starting the car. Apparently I was given a very needy version of the device.

The device gives you six minutes to pull over and perform the random test. If you don't, you get a violation. Get five violations, and you have 72 hours to take the device back to the vendor for recalibration, or it will lock the ignition.

» Mouthwash will register as a fail, so rinse with water if you gargle. I tested it by giving my mouth a good rinse with some Listerine. I had minty fresh breath, but unfortunately, I couldn't drive my car anywhere. After a fail, you're given 15 minutes before you can try again.

Other embarrassing scenarios I've been in:

» Having to blow while at the drive-through window of a fast-food restaurant.

» Other drivers seeing me blowing as they pass by me.

» Taking forever to get out of a parking stall and having another car wait for me while I'm trying to find the right pitch for the hum.

Did I mention that you have to pay $89 a month plus tax to go through this humiliation?

Next week I'll write about the results of each breath test, maybe post a picture from the camera (that's how it is determined whether you let others blow for you).

If you have the device in your car, email me your funniest or most frustrating experience with it. I promise I won't publish your name.

As for me, I can't wait to get this thing uninstalled on Monday. If you couldn't tell, this assignment really blows.

———