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...

  DW Aina Le‘a Development, LLC v. Land Use Commission (HSC December 17, 2020) Background. The Hawai'i Land Use Commission reclassified 1,060 acres of land in South Kohala on the Big Island from agricultural to urban. In exchange for the reclassification allowing development, the LUC required that some of the development be deemed “affordable” and imposed other conditions. In 2008, the LUC issued a show-cause order to the landowner to show why certain conditions were not met. The landowner sold the property to DW Aina Le‘a Development, LLC, which invested more than $28 million in development. The LUC then reclassified the land back to agricultural. The HSC vacated the reclassification order on other grounds. In 2011, DW filed a lawsuit against the LUC on the grounds that its reclassification was an unconstitutional taking in violation of the federal and Hawai'i constitutions. The LUC moved proceedings to federal court and moved to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that th...

State v. Abdon (HSC January 12, 2016) Background. June-June Mas Abdon was indicted with the offense of sexual assault in the first degree by way of forcing his penis into the complainant’s vagina. It was alleged that the offense took place “[o]n or about the 1st day of June, 1997, to and including the 30th day of June, 1997.” The indictment alleged that the complainant was born on April 26, 1988, turned eighteen in 2006, and was still alive. The indictment was dated on April 24, 2012—two days after the complainant’s 24th birthday. At trial, the complainant confirmed her birthday was on April 26, 1988. She identified Abdon as her uncle and testified that in June 1997, when she was nine years old, Abdon sexually assaulted her in a bedroom by touching her vagina with his hand and forcing his penis into her vagina. She did not report the incident until she was in college in 2010. Abdon testified and denied touching her inappropriately. After the evidence, the parties discussed...