Grand jury to get
Ireland case again

Dana Ireland was kidnapped, raped
and murdered on Christmas Eve,
1991, on the Big Isle

Frankie Stapleton
Special to the Star-Bulletin

HILO -- A Big Island grand jury is expected to take up the 1991 rape and killing of Dana Ireland again tomorrow as court officials try to keep a lid on publicity surrounding the case.

Attorney Ira Leitel appealed to Judge Ricki May Amano yesterday for copies of grand jury transcripts that led to the July indictment of Frank R. Pauline Jr., 24, of Puna, for the kidnapping, rape and murder of Ireland on Christmas Eve 1991.

Ireland was found near death on the side of an isolated Puna subdivision road and died that might at Hilo Hospital.

Leitel is the court-appointed attorney for Shawn Schweitzer, 21, one of two brothers who were implicated by Pauline but have not been charged in the Ireland case.

Schweitzer, a 16-year-old Pahoa High School student at the time of the Ireland killing, was waived from Family Court jurisdiction in a move prosecutors hope will allow for his indictment.

Amano granted Leitel access to the grand jury transcripts at acourt hearing yesterday but ordered they not be copied, circulated or referred to in public court documents.

Saying she was concerned about the sensitive nature of the information in the transcripts, Deputy Prosecutor Charlene Iboshi urged the court to limit access to both the regular and investigative grand jury proceedings in the case.

Amano and Family Court Judge Ben Gaddis have both issued gag orders on attorneys and the defendant in the case.

Pauline is serving time in state prison for an unrelated rape case.

Pauline is scheduled for trial beginning Jan. 19 on the Ireland charges.

He also faces trial on charges he raped a minor.That trial will be scheduled after the Ireland trial.