Hawai'i Legal News

  Alm v. Eleven (11) Products Direct Sweepstakes Machines, et al. (HSC December 20, 2021) Background. On September 26, 2012, Honolulu Police Department officers got a warrant to search a business called Winner’z Zone to look for gambling-related machines. They find 77 Product Direct Sweepstakes (PDS) machines (which look like this ), cash, and other evidence believed to be related to unlawful gambling. For two years the property was held in police custody before HPD initiated forfeiture proceedings. The criminal investigation was abandoned, but the police held onto the machines. On September 12, 2014, the police generated a new report and report number stating the machines were re-seized for forfeiture purposes.   A week later, the police requested the prosecutor to initiate proceedings to forfeit the machines. On September 22, 2014, the prosecution filed a petition for administrative forfeiture with the Department of Attorney General. A business known as PJY Enterprise...

  State v. Thompson (HSC December 10, 2021) Background. Corey Thompson was charged by way of complaint with abuse of a family or household member. HRS § 709-906. The complaint was signed by a prosecutor and had no other signatures on it. The prosecution did not attach a declaration or any affidavit to the complaint. The family court clerk issued a penal summons demanding Thompson’s presence in Kona district court.   Thompson moved to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that there was no affidavit establishing probable cause that he committed the offense and there was no declaration or sworn affidavit pursuant to HRS § 805-1. Without an affidavit or declaration, the prosecution could not arraign him pursuant to Hawai'i Rules of Penal Procedure (HRPP) Rule 5(b)(1). The family court (Hon. Judge Ronald Ibarra) granted the motion and dismissed the case without prejudice. The prosecution appealed. The ICA, in a published opinion, vacated the dismissal order. Thompson petitio...

  State v. Agdinaoay (HSC November 30, 2021) Background. Artemio Agdinaoay pleaded no contest to the offense of violating a temporary restraining order. The sentencing court—with the Hon. Judge Matthew Viola presiding—ordered Agdinaoay to serve 181 days jail and complete the domestic violence intervention classes (DVI). He appealed the sentence. The ICA affirmed and the HSC accepted his petition for writ of certiorari.   Four Types of Sentencing Dispositions (and DVI isn’t one). The HSC agreed with Agdinaoay that the sentence was unlawful. Criminal sentencing is governed by Hawai'i Revised Statutes (HRS) Chapter 706. “No sentence shall be imposed otherwise in accordance with this chapter.” HRS § 706-600. There are only four types of sentencing dispositions: probation, fines, imprisonment, and community service. HRS § 706-605.   The HSC pointed out that DVI classes are not among the four dispositions; it may be imposed as a condition of probation. HRS § 706-624(...

  State v. Willis (HSC December 2, 2021) Background. Erik Willis was indicted for attempted murder in the second degree. Willis moved to suppress evidence gathered by the police when they went into his house and arrested him without a warrant. The police suspected Willis of repeatedly stabbing a teenager without provocation on a beach in Kahala. They surveilled him for a day and a half and concluded they had probable cause to make the arrest.   The officers went into his house to arrest him without a search or arrest warrant. When they went inside, they saw shoes and a shirt that matched the description from an eyewitness to the stabbing. The circuit court, the Hon. Judge Kevin Souza presiding, granted the motion and excluded evidence of the shoes, shirt, and Willis’s statements. The prosecution appealed and the case was transferred to the HSC.   Search and Seizure: the Basics. “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,...

  League of Women Voters of Honolulu v. Hawai'i (HSC November 4, 2021) Background. In 2018, the Hawai'i State Senate introduced a bill, S.B. 2858. The Bill proposed to amend sections of Hawai'i Revised Statutes (HRS) Chapter 353 by requiring the Department of Public Safety to prepare annual reports to the Legislature about the rehabilitation of people released from prison. The purpose of the report was to collect data on recidivism rates. Aside from minor amendments, the bill passed three readings in the Senate and crossed over to the House, where it passed its first reading.   At a hearing on the House Committee on Public Safety, the Department of Public Safety, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, various action committees like the Hawai'i Justice Coalition, the Community Alliance on Prisons, Young Progressive Demanding Action, and the ACLU along with individual people testified. Although most of the testifiers supported the bill, the House Committee recommended amendin...

  State v. Slavik (ICA October 27, 2021) Background. Nikolaus Slavik was charged with carrying or possessing a loaded firearm on a public highway (HRS § 134-26(a)); permits to acquire (HRS §§ 134-2 and 134-17); the offense of mandatory registration of firearms (HRS §§ 134-3(b) and 134-17); and place to keep ammunition (HRS § 134-27(a)). Slavik moved to dismiss the counts because the complaint failed to aver mens rea over the element that at the time of possession, Slavik “knew or recklessly disregarded the substantial and unjustifiable risk, that the object was a prohibited item.” The circuit court, with the Hon. Judge Robert D. S. Kim presiding, denied the motion.   At trial, Officer Henry Ivy testified that one summer morning he patrolling in the Kau District on the Big Island. He came across Slavik sleeping in a vehicle on the side of the road. Officer Ivy approached the car on the passenger side. The window was down. Slavik’s hand was on top of the pistol. The polic...

State v. Cattaneo (HSC October 22, 2021) Background. Michael Cattaneo pleaded no contest to negligent homicide in the first degree and two drug-related offenses. He was sentenced to ten years prison for the homicide and five years each for the drug offenses. The circuit court—the Hon. Judge Richard T. Bissen, Jr. presiding—ordered the drug offenses to run concurrently to each other but consecutively to the homicide totaling fifteen years imprisonment. Cattaneo filed a motion to reduce the sentence pursuant to Hawai'i Rules of Penal Procedure Rule 35(b). He requested that all counts run concurrently for an open ten-year sentence.   The circuit court denied the motion and specifically rejected Cattaneo’s argument that it had to evaluate his sentence with “comparable cases.” The circuit court stated it was not its “practice to review cases that are issued by other courts, whether in this circuit or others. Because I happen to know that every case is nuanced, every case has some...

  State v. Shaw (HSC October 1, 2021) Background. Susan Shaw was prosecuted for one count of computer fraud in the third degree and fraudulent use of a credit card. In the indictment, the prosecution pleaded in the computer fraud count that from January 16, 2017 through and including May 18, 2017, Shaw “did knowingly access a computer, or computer network with the intent to commit the offense of theft in the third degree[.]” The count also provided the elements to theft in the third degree. Shaw moved to dismiss the indictment based on lack of probable cause. Shaw argued that aggregating the amounts for the thefts into a single felony is not permitted under the computer fraud statute. The motion was denied. Shaw was convicted as charged and the circuit court—the Hon. Judge Fa‘auuga L. To‘oto‘o presiding—sentenced her to five years imprisonment. She appealed to the ICA. The ICA held that the credit card offense should have been dismissed. The ICA vacated judgment and remanded the...