Motion to Dismiss Mauna Kea charges nearly sabotaged in court filing
December 30, 2015
Press Release on sloppy, dysfunctional court system
further contact: Jim Albertini Malu ‘Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown) Hawai’i 96760 Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org www.malu-aina.org
I am one of the Mauna Kea protectors arrested on Mauna Kea April 2, 2015. On Monday, December 28, 2015 at 9:11 AM I filed in person a Motion for Dismissal of the charge of Obstruction at the Hilo District Court. The motion is below and attached. December 28th was the deadline for the motion to be filed. Later that evening I noticed on my stamped copy that the clerk put the date of filing as December 29th instead of the correct date, December 28th.
Good thing I noticed the Hilo District Court clerk, Pamela M Paulo, stamped the wrong date (Dec. 29). If I hadn’t caught it, and showed up in Waimea Court on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016 to argue my motion, I can just imagine the deputy prosecutor E. Britt Bailey or the Judge Barbara Takase saying “sorry Mr. Albertini, but you didn’t file your motion on time (deadline Dec. 28). Motion denied.” And how could I prove otherwise, since the court stamp date on my motion said Dec. 29?
I went back to the court on Tuesday, Dec. 29 at 8:40 AM and the same window clerk at traffic window #6 Byron K. Pang was there as on Monday, Dec. 28th. I told him that District Court clerk Paulo made a mistake of the stamp date yesterday when I filed my motion that could jeopardize my motion. It took about 15 minutes but an affidavit of correction was completed and filed by District Court clerk Paulo, and notarized by Kathleen K. Sakamoto. I was told that the affidavit would be attached to the motion that I filed yesterday with the corrected date. I received 2 copies of the affidavit with the corrected date attached to my filed motion with the wrong date.
The sad thing is, no one apologized to me about this serious mistake that could have jeopardized my motion nor the inconvenience this caused me to have to make another 25 mile round trip from Kurtistown to Hilo, put , money in the court house meter, again go through security screening, and present extra copies of my motion. Nor the basic courtesy of failing to tell me yesterday that I should drop a copy of my pro se motion at the prosecutors office, just around the corner from the filing clerk’s window in the courthouse,even when I specifically asked who, if anyone, needs to get copies of my stamped pro se motion besides the original filed with the court.
I wonder how many other court motions or filings were stamped with the incorrect date on Monday or Tuesday? Or was I singled out? When did the Court figure out their stamp date was incorrect? When I brought it to their attention on Tuesday morning, or did they realize their mistake on Monday but failed to notify me and/or others until I came to the court on Tuesday?
As far as I’m concerned this is just another example of a sloppy, dysfunctional system that feeds off the misery of mainly poor Hawaiian people. The Hilo Court House was built just a few years ago at a cost of over $90 million dollars. Another is being built in Kona for a similar figure. The long Hilo hallways of 2 floors of court rooms with a rather cramped waiting area outside the various courtrooms has the feel of a meat packaging/slaughter house, where animals are moved through chutes, butchered and shrink wrapped, and then moved out. The lack of common courtesy I received reflects a dysfunctional non-caring impersonal system that needs to be shaken up and changed. Our current judicial system disproportionately convicts and locks up Hawaiians in prisons.
On April 2 on Mauna Kea there were 31 people arrested. I believe the group consisted of 28 Hawaiians, 2 haoles and 1 Japanese. The fact that the State Supreme Court has ruled the TMT permit illegal and yet prosecutions are continuing against those arrested trying to protect sacred Mauna Kea from illegal TMT construction speaks for itself. I don’t feel I should have had to spend Christmas weekend writing a motion to dismiss the charges. The judge and the prosecutor should have dismissed the charges against me soon after the Supreme Court decision, but it appears they have no sense of shame nor justice.
My motion (attached and below) speaks to this in more detail for those interested.
Aloha and Happy New Year to you all.
Jim Albertini
Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015 12:30PM
