ROLE AND DUTIES
The Office of the Prosecuting Attorney is the legal agency responsible
for the prosecution of all criminal offenses occurring on the Big
Island. The Prosecuting Attorney appoints the necessary staff to
represent the people of this community before the District Court, Family
Court, Circuit Court, Grand Jury, Intermediate Court of Appeals and the
Supreme Court of the State of Hawaii.
The Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys also appear in Federal courts, including
the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court, to
see that Big Island convictions are not overturned. The agency's duty
and goal is to seek justice in criminal cases in the County of Hawaii.
STAFF
Appointed Personnel: 28
Permanent Personnel: 28
State-funded Personnel: 16
Federal-funded Personnel: 5
BUDGET
In the '97-'98 fiscal year, the office had a total projected operating
budget of $4,232,781. 36% or $1,533,876 was from federal and state
grants. A Domestic Violence Unit, initially funded through a federal
grant, is now permanently funded by the County. Federal funding through
the Byrne Memorial Fund is providing funding for a Violence Against
Children project.
UNITS
Offices are located in Hilo, Kealakekua, and Waimea to serve Big Island
residents. The Prosecutor's Office is divided into five units: 1) the
Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys' Unit; 2) the Investigative Unit; 3) the
Victims Assistance Unit; 4) the Administrative Unit; and 5) the Clerical
Support Unit.
The DEPUTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY'S UNIT is divided into East, West and
North Hawaii teams to handle all criminal cases that occur in their
respective districts.
Team Attys Districts covered Cases
E. Hawaii 18 No. & So. Hilo, Puna felonies & misdemeanors
So. Kohala, Hamakua, Ka'u felonies
W. Hawaii 6 No. & So. Kona felonies & misdemeanors
Ka'u misdemeanors
North Kohala felonies
No. Hawaii 1 No. & So. Kohala, felonies & Hamakua misdemeanors
The East Hawaii Team includes a Domestic Violence Unit responsible for
the prosecution of domestic and family violence misdemeanors and a
Violence Against Children's Unit for prosecution of cases involving child
physical and sexual abuse in Hilo and Puna. There is also one attorney
designated for Family Court matters and another designated for
coordinating community outreach.
Major specialized sub-units and efforts within the Attorney's Unit are:
* The Career Criminal Prosecution Program is a State-funded project
designed to get repeat criminal offenders through the system as
quickly as possible with the maximum sanctions available. This unit
continues to have a high conviction rate. The Career Criminal
program is also charged with handling sex offenders.
* Drug prosecution deputies handle major drug cases and advises the
police regarding the commercial promotion of marijuana and the
increasing problems with cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin and crystal
methamphetamine (ice).
* The Felony Unit prosecuted a number of notable trials this past year
which included Richard Taylor, Zachary Kanakanui, Zachary and Stacey
Kahakai, Linda Kahihikolo, Kelly Yonemura and James Kalili. Several
significant appeals were affirmed including William Bal and Richard
Taylor cases. Richard Taylor, a career criminal, was sentenced to
three consecutive life terms and Mark Dunse was sentenced to life
without parole. The deputies continue to carry heavy trial and
appeal caseloads and respond to police inquiries regarding specific
cases at all hours of the day or night.
* The Screening Unit for East Hawaii is responsible for all screening
and charging decisions for East Hawaii cases, including both felony
and misdemeanor cases. They also analyze cases for plea
negotiations and present appropriate cases to the Grand Jury. The
benefit to the County is greater uniformity in charging and faster
response to the public.
* Forfeitures remain an uncertain source of revenue for the office.
Funds have been used for law enforcement purposes including crime
prevention programs such as the McGruff anti-shoplifting program.
State forfeiture funds received in fiscal 97-98 totaled $25,755.
* The District/Family Court Unit handles all traffic and misdemeanor
cases occurring in the seven District Courts. This unit also
handles Family Court criminal matters.
The INVESTIGATIVE UNIT provides trial, pre-trial and post-trial
investigative assistance to the deputy prosecutors. This unit also
maintains a list of fugitives from Hawaii County on the FBI's National
Crime Information Center computer system. The unit also works closely
with the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Office in returning fugitives
nationally or internationally.
The VICTIM/WITNESS ASSISTANCE UNIT attends to the needs of victims and
witnesses as they go through the criminal justice system. Case
information, limited crisis counseling, assistance with restitution and
crime victim compensation and referrals to other agencies to satisfy
victims' needs are some of the many duties assigned to this unit. The
majority of personnel in this unit are funded by state and federal
grants.
ADMINISTRATIVE UNIT seeks additional state and federal funding for
specialized programs, and manages fiscal, facilities and management
information systems for the largest legal agency in our County.
The CLERICAL SUPPORT UNIT keeps pace with the word processing and
information management needs of the office by extensive use of computer
equipment. The clerical support staff is an integral part of successful
prosecution.
HIGHLIGHTS
The office continues it's active involvement in the Law Enforcement
Coalition which is made up of all County Prosecutors, Chiefs of Police,
and the State's Attorney General. The coalition successfully lobbied for
passage of key pieces of legislation. These included expanded
restitution rights for victims, expanded rights for victims of sex
assault to have defendants tested for HIV, improved sex offender
registration and stiffer sentencing for those convicted of multiple
spouse abuse charges.
CASE REFERRALS
July 1, 1997 - June 30, 1998
# Defendants # Charges
So. Hilo 3,215 7,121
Puna 1,155 2,900
Ka'u 282 637
Hamakua 296 651
So. Kohala 848 2,141
No. Kohala 219 563
Kona 2,486 5,684
Honolulu 18 25
Kauai 1 1
Maui 3 4
* In November 1997, the office hosted a conference on
"Addressing Crime Together." The conference, attended by
112 people, focused on the concept of "Community Policing"
with the goal of establishing partnerships between law
enforcement and the community in an effort to address crime
reduction as a community responsibility.
* The Office worked with the Department of the Attorney
General and other agencies to plan and coordinate workshops
on Restorative Justice in Hilo and Kona in June 1998. The
Big Island sessions were well attended by a mix of
community, law enforcement and agency representatives.
Prosecutor's office staff continue to be involved with
follow-up meetings on implementing restorative justice
practices in our County.
* The Prosecutor and the deputies continue to provide
outreach into the community. However, one deputy has been
assigned as the community prosecution coordinator. The
objective is to proactively decrease crime and improve the
quality of life in the community by meeting regularly with
community members, government agencies, police,
neighborhood watch and numerous other community groups.
* The Office has been active in crime prevention programs
targeted at juveniles. Examples include the STEM
(Shoplifting Takes Everyone's Money) Program sponsored by
the Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with McGruff, the
crime fighting dog; a Department of Education pilot project
for 5th and 6th graders to teach them about the Family
Court system; Operation Keiki ID; and specialized training
for the Department of Education and other government
agencies.
* The Office is co-sponsoring a training in August 1998 for
the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners program. Initiated in
1995, this program provides specialized training for nurses
to perform forensic examinations of sex assault victims.
Expected to attend are nurses, police officers and sexual
assault victim advocates from throughout the island and
Maui. Training and awareness improve the quality of rape
exams and assist in prosecution of offenders.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
The Office' mission has continued to focus on the areas of
Domestic Violence and Family Violence.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Domestic and family violence was recognized to be a severe and
increasing problem in the County of Hawaii and, thus the Domestic
Violence Unit was established within the Office of the
Prosecuting Attorney in 1993. This project was funded by a
federal/state grant to expedite the processing of domestic
violence cases and to coordinate efforts and share information
between agencies. In 1998, grant funding for the Domestic
Violence project ended. The impact of the work done with the
grant, however, was very significant.
Based on the experience of the project, the more quickly a case
proceeds and the less time the victim is exposed to the offender,
the easier prosecution usually becomes and the better the
results. The project was able to accomplish disposing of cases
within 120 days for 93% of the cases processed. Feedback from
victims also indicate that expedited victim contact, improvement
in screening time, and vertical prosecution have had a positive
impact on victims.
Interagency coordination, information sharing and training were
also critical to the success of the project. The Domestic
Violence Interagency Team (DVIAT) continues to meet monthly in
East and West Hawaii and is comprised of over 150 individuals
from government, law enforcement, the Judiciary, and non-profit
agencies, community organizations and interested citizens.
DVIAT's mission is to prevent and reduce family and domestic
violence in Hawaii County, make victims safer and improve victim
services.
Major accomplishments/activities of the Domestic Violence project
included establishment of the Mayor's Family Violence Advisory
Commission which was created with the DVIAT as a standing
committee. This is a county-wide commission which will address a
broad range of issues related to Family Violence.
Other activities included continuation of the volunteer
recruiting and training used to assist in victim contacts,
clerical and investigative assistance, and DVIAT committee work.
In the last six-month period of the grant, volunteers contributed
a total of 2,327 hours or an average of 388 hours/month.
Rural public awareness programs were initiated in Hamakua and
Ka'u. As a result, the "Tempura Group" a battered women's
support group, has developed a "roving" safe house in Ka'u to
house victims of domestic violence.
Domestic Violence education in the public schools was also
addressed. DVIAT produced an educational skit which was taken to
various schools and community groups throughout the county.
The DV HURTS (Domestic Violence Hospital Urgent Response Team)
program was developed to have an "on call" team of advocates
respond to the hospital to provide support to victims of domestic
violence. this collaboration between victim advocates and the
medical community has served as a model program and is now in the
process of being replicated in Kona and Ka'u.
The DVIAT Business-Media committee, comprised of business and
media leaders throughout the community as well as victim
advocates, has developed an educational packet to be distributed
to businesses throughout East Hawaii to give employers
information about domestic violence as well as to provide
resources to employers and employees affected by domestic
violence.
VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN
In an effort to continue to address the problem of domestic
violence in the County of Hawaii, the Office of the Prosecuting
Attorney applied for and received a grant to deal with cases of
child physical and sexual abuse. The grant's goal, to "better
protect children and hold offenders accountable by improving the
prosecution and interagency response to violence against
children, including sexual assault and physical abuse", further
extends the concepts of protection for the community that was
first addressed by the domestic violence project.
Since inception of the project on August 1, 1997, the Office
received a total of 284 cases involving child victims in the Hilo
and Puna districts alone. Of those, 128 cases were sexual
assault offenses, 99 were for physical abuse (including felonious
assaults) and 57 involved threats of harm, including violation of
order and reckless endangering.
One of the primary objectives of this grant is to develop a
county-wide protocol between police, prosecutors, child
protective workers, schools, family court, guardian ad litems and
substance abuse, mental health and other service providers to
better process child physical abuse cases. Interagency
coordination is essential for effective prosecution.
It is the hope of the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney that
coordinated community responses along with education and public
awareness will prevent violence in general and make our
communities safer, not only for our children but for all of us.
