Friday, May 30, 2008
Energy conscious Kaua`i bank robber?
Taking the bus to rob a bank and then hitchhiking to the police station to turn yourself in indicates how high the cost of energy has become on Kauai, or perhaps the act of robbing a bank is a cry for help by a resource strapped citizen unable to afford the medical attention and housing in these tough economic times - Bank robbery suspect hitches to jailhouse
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Emailers Take Warning
From personal experience, I know that Kauai Police Department officers send threatening email messages to citizens, and I know the practice is acceptable and will not be publicly reprimanded by Kauai Police Commission or by Kauai Board of Ethics.
However, I did not know until reading reporter Rachel Gehrlein’s story, Emissions protest dampened by weather (5/24/08 TGI p.1), that police officers were monitoring the email of citizens. But evidently they are because KPD Capt. Ale Quibilan said "the department decided to prepare for any event" based upon the belief that "approximately 100 people expected to show up at the protest circulating through e-mails."Let’s be careful out there.
However, I did not know until reading reporter Rachel Gehrlein’s story, Emissions protest dampened by weather (5/24/08 TGI p.1), that police officers were monitoring the email of citizens. But evidently they are because KPD Capt. Ale Quibilan said "the department decided to prepare for any event" based upon the belief that "approximately 100 people expected to show up at the protest circulating through e-mails."Let’s be careful out there.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Prosecutor or persecutor?
In "'Pet prosecutor' sounds off" (TGI, letters, A4, 5-17-2008) Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho writes "I'm sure the rest of the community would take offense if I decided to unilaterally pick and chooses which laws I wanted to enforce or not." She is right. We do take offense even when the action is not unilateral, but done in concert with other council members as was done at the June 15, 2006 session of the Kauai County Council.
At that meeting Shaylene supported an investigation into what she described "as a conspiracy against the public being informed of the truth..." Shaylene said, "Having practiced criminal law almost solely for 15 years both as a public defender as well as a prosecutor, it is very disturbing because there are the kinds of cases that I exactly reviewed and took apart and to have this kind of misinformation published it's just horrific."
Shaylene and her county council co-conspirators then proceeded to take a sheet feed error and spin a conspiracy out of whole cloth claiming "someone" intended to alter a government document for purposes of deception. They called for an investigation and got one from the State Office of the Attorney General.
A former police chief and candidate for the Kauai County Council's house was raided by the State Attorney General.
Computers and electronics were seized as evidence.
An email threat was sent from a county official to a citizen for expressing the opinion it was a sheet feed error.
After a six month investigation, the State Attorney General declined to prosecute, returned the seized equipment, and dropped all charges.
After an enormous waste of time, taxpayer money, an email threat from a county official, and the tarnishing of a county council candidate's reputation during an election it turns out the altered document was indeed the result of a sheet feed error which was obvious to the non-conspiracy minded all along.
It is the job of the County Prosecutor to exercise prosecutorial discretion in picking and choosing which laws to enforce. Hopefully this discretion will be based upon the seriousness of the offense committed, and not upon a politically motivated, half-baked conspiracy theory.
At that meeting Shaylene supported an investigation into what she described "as a conspiracy against the public being informed of the truth..." Shaylene said, "Having practiced criminal law almost solely for 15 years both as a public defender as well as a prosecutor, it is very disturbing because there are the kinds of cases that I exactly reviewed and took apart and to have this kind of misinformation published it's just horrific."
Shaylene and her county council co-conspirators then proceeded to take a sheet feed error and spin a conspiracy out of whole cloth claiming "someone" intended to alter a government document for purposes of deception. They called for an investigation and got one from the State Office of the Attorney General.
A former police chief and candidate for the Kauai County Council's house was raided by the State Attorney General.
Computers and electronics were seized as evidence.
An email threat was sent from a county official to a citizen for expressing the opinion it was a sheet feed error.
After a six month investigation, the State Attorney General declined to prosecute, returned the seized equipment, and dropped all charges.
After an enormous waste of time, taxpayer money, an email threat from a county official, and the tarnishing of a county council candidate's reputation during an election it turns out the altered document was indeed the result of a sheet feed error which was obvious to the non-conspiracy minded all along.
It is the job of the County Prosecutor to exercise prosecutorial discretion in picking and choosing which laws to enforce. Hopefully this discretion will be based upon the seriousness of the offense committed, and not upon a politically motivated, half-baked conspiracy theory.
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