Kokua Line

By June Watanabe

Thursday, April 30, 1998


Misunderstanding cited
in Mahoe's trip to New York

What happened in the Chinky Mahoe case? He was supposed to have been sentenced in March. Why was he allowed to go to New York with his halau to perform recently?

Kumu hula Howell "Chinky" Mahoe Jr. was not authorized to leave the state April 16, according to the staff of Circuit Judge Wilfred Watanabe.

Watanabe would have had to have given him permission to do so, and that was not the case. However, Watanabe, who is scheduled to sentence Mahoe on May 21, is not going to take any punitive action since Mahoe has returned, a spokeswoman for the judge said.

"There was some miscommunication between Mr. Mahoe and the probation officer working on his pre-sentence report regarding permission to leave the jurisdiction," she said.

Mahoe's attorney, David Gierlach, said Mahoe, "months and months ago," thought that he would be permitted to go to New York. "There was miscommunication in that," he said.

Gierlach "was admonished by Judge Watanabe that this should not happen in the future without the court's permission," the judge's staff member said.

City Deputy Prosecutor Darrell Wong said sentencing had to be reset because Gierlach was involved in an unrelated trial and "trials take precedence."

Mahoe pleaded no contest last September to five felony counts of third-degree sexual assault and one count of fourth-degree sexual assault. He was accused of molesting four boys, members of his hula troupe, from 1994 to 1996.

Tapa

I've been getting a number of annoying phone calls so I got the anonymous call rejection option.

But a lot of people don't know they have to dial star 82 if you want to get through. I've talked to several operators and they just say that's how it is. Can't the phone company redo its announcement saying, "This is an anonymous call rejection and you have to dial star 82 to get through?" I think I'm losing a few phone calls because of this.

Yours is "not a bad suggestion," said GTE Hawaiian Telephone spokesman Keith Kamisugi. He promised to follow up.

For those unfamiliar with it, Kamisugi explained the situation:

"Let's say I want to call you, but I don't want you to know my number. My phone has complete blocking on it. If your phone has a function that prevents anonymous calls from coming in, the message will read, 'We're sorry. The number you are calling does not accept anonymous calls. Please hang up and call back with your Caller ID unblocked.'"

To get through, Kamisugi said, "I would hang up and (punch) star 82, which would reveal my number and the call would go through."

Your suggestion would make it clearer what a caller should do to get past the anonymous call rejection option, he said.

Tapa

Mahalo

To Mrs. Teresa Obrero of Waipahu who found our $50 gift certificate in the driveway of the building where she works downtown on March 10. She went to the trouble of calling Longs Store to track us down, using the certificate number. We received the gift certificate with much aloha. To think we still have honest people! -- Gratified senior citizen

Tapa

Auwe

To the woman driver in a tan car who dropped off three children and another woman at Kaahumanu Elementary in March. You made traffic, including a bus, wait on busy Beretania Street by taking your sweet time, coming out to hug and kiss all the kids. None of your passengers closed their doors, so you had to do it, then go back around to get back into the driver's seat. Set a better example for your kids by obeying traffic laws and safety by dropping them off in the school parking lot!





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