Monthly Archives: August 2013

On Friday, August 23, 2013 at about 6:00 P.M., I participated in my first Fantasy Football draft with 11 other of my friends at the Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney. It was a live draft at an apartment in town. The next day, Saturday, August 24, 2013, we all had to wake up early for a mandatory training for all attorneys in our department held at the law school in regards to domestic violence. After the training, I was so tired that I fell asleep at about 5:30 P.M. and woke up today, Sunday, August 25, 2013 at about 7:00 A.M.

I had a good meeting today, Thursday, August 22, 2013 with Honolulu Councilman Joey Manahan, along with Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tricia Nakamatsu, First Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, and the Deputy Prosecuting Attorney who heads our Juvenile Offender Division. Councilman Manahan and I served together in the Hawaii State House of Representatives. I gave him a tour of our two floors of office space in Ali’i Place in Downtown Honolulu that houses close to 300 employees, which includes about 120 attorneys.

After winning my domestic violence misdemeanor jury trial on August 9, 2013, I get to hold on to this trophy in my office until the next win by another deputy prosecuting attorney.

On August 9, 2013, I won my first jury trial, a 2-day trial regarding an adult male who had a proximity and contact violation of a temporary restraining order that protected an adult female. The State’s complaining witness and defendant are… ex-girlfriend and ex-boyfriend. It was a “he said, she said” case with both of them telling different stories, but I was able to win a pre-trial voluntariness hearing to get a statement the defendant said to an officer: “I was there but I never said anything.” I also got evidence showing his proximity and contact violations using testimonial and photographic evidence. On the witness stand, I got the Defendant to say he understood the temporary restraining order. The defendant’s proof of service was stipulated. In my closing argument, I emphasized that the defendant was making excuses in violating the temporary restraining order to overcome his mistake-of-fact defense. My win-loss record in Domestic Violence Misdemeanor law is 1-2. I was told by many attorneys that domestic violence misdemeanor are the most difficult cases to win in criminal law because juries can be forgiving where there’s intimate relationships, minimize the offense, blame victims, and have biases against women victims, and there are the obstacles of having recanting victims, uncooperative victims, no or little visible injuries, “he said, she said” scenarios with opposite stories by both sides, and other challenges. Our team of 6 attorneys in the Domestic Violence Unit has won 3 times in the last 3 weeks, once each week. The belt hanging in front of my office is displayed in front of an attorney’s office who won a trial and is transferred to the next attorney who wins. Each star on my name plate represents every time I won a motion of judgment of acquittal by the defense after the State rests upon finishing its witnesses where we must prove that the State has met all the elements of the offense and has a primary facie case to continue on. I have one trial that must be re-tried.See More