The Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Prosecuting Attorneys

For Honolulu Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys litigating in the district courts, we have hundreds of cases a week that we are either screening to charge, typing complaints, screening to ensure staff subpoenas the necessary witnesses, typing substantive memos in opposition to opposing counsels’ motions, typing technical motions, re-filing due to dismissals by the court, and preparing for trial. In some situations, Honolulu Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys can have up to a 100 cases in a single court hearing. In Honolulu District Criminal Court, we can have up to 30 criminal cases in a court hearing. When we have huge caseloads in a court hearing, we can have many private attorneys coming in with their one or two cases and Public Defender attorneys with their bunch of cases, and we have to be ready to argue all cases against all of the attorneys before the judge. Moreover, a number of district court judges can be temperamental and impatient, especially if we have to go to trial since it is common knowledge that some judges just want to go home as soon as possible. For those judges who are temperamental and impatient, they take their anger out on the Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys since it is the deputy prosecutors who call the cases on the calendar. I think every judge in the district courts should experience calling cases then maybe some of them could hopefully become more humble and abide by the Rules of Judicial Conduct that they are required to uphold. The pressures of being a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in the district courts is like a right of passage that creates a brotherhood and sisterhood among us prosecutors because we respect the hardship that we all had to endure. I am honored to be a part of this great group of attorneys serving the people of Hawaii.