City Council candidate
Aduja sues Sun Press
for pulling ad

By Crystal Kua
and Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

City Council candidate Melodie Aduja and her campaign committee have filed a lawsuit against a Windward Oahu newspaper and its publishing company for pulling a campaign advertisement at the last minute, the lawsuit said.

Aduja is running against incumbent Councilman Steve Holmes in District 2 (Kahuku-Enchanted Lake).

Aduja paid for the campaign advertisement in the Sun Press that was supposed to be distributed during the week before the election. Printing was supposed to begin yesterday.

The advertisement is a collage of newspaper clippings covering an allegation by a 17-year-old girl that Holmes slapped her in the face. Holmes has denied that he slapped her.

Someone from the Sun Press called Aduja's home Monday night and left a message after business hours that the advertisement would not run in yesterday's printing because the advertisement was unfair to Holmes, the lawsuit alleges.

The newspaper also said it could not give her back her money, which Aduja estimated at about $1,000, until the end of the week, the lawsuit says. Aduja said the action by the newspaper left her with no time or money to place an alternative advertisement.

Publisher Ken Berry said he was aware the newspaper pulled the ad but he declined to say why. He also said he was not aware of the lawsuit and so had no comment on it.

"I guess you can sue anybody nowadays," he said.

Holmes last week filed a complaint with the Campaign Spending Commission alleging that another Aduja ad in the Sun Press was misleading and unfair.

The ad featured four unflattering pictures of Windward sites, blaming Holmes for not taking responsibility for their conditions.

One of the pictures shows a wall on the Bay View Golf Course side of Kulauli Street. The ad says mountain views were lost by the erection of the wall.

Holmes said Friday that the wall had been used as a temporary dust control fence that had since been removed. Later in the day he recanted that statement, apologized for the error and stressed he stood by his other objections to the ad.

Earlier this week, 20 Windward residents headed by environmentalist Mary Protheroe wrote a letter to the Sun Press endorsing Holmes' complaint against Aduja.