Hawaiian activist
threatened Molokai
Ranch, prosecutor says

Walter Ritte is on trial in the
destruction of a ranch pipeline
and burning of a ranch house

By Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin

WAILUKU -- Maui County Prosecutor Richard Bissen described the destruction of a Molokai Ranch water pipeline as an act of "terrorism" and charged that one of those responsible was Hawaiian activist Walter Ritte.

Bissen said that at a meeting in March 1995, Ritte told ranch President James Mozley that a ranch manager was blown up in a vehicle in the 1930s.

Bissen said that in July 1996, Ritte told ranch official Lyle Otsuka that Otsuka had no understanding of what he was getting into by working for the ranch.

Ritte told Otsuka it only takes one or two incidents to bring the ranch down, Bissen said.

Bissen made the accusations yesterday during his opening statement in a Maui Circuit Court trial against Ritte, charged with two counts of second-degree criminal property damage.

Ritte, 53, one of the first to protest the bombing of Kahoolawe in the 1970s, is accused of burning the ranch's Kaupoa House in 1995 and destroying five miles of the pipeline in 1996.

The ranch, which owns about a third of the land on Molokai, has been developing tented vacation huts on wooden platforms in west Molokai -- an action opposed by Ritte and other members of the group Pono.

Bissen said the pipeline captured water and transported it to Molokai Ranch's Maunaloa Town.

He said at least three people broke the 8-inch pipeline about every 20 feet for five miles.

Defense attorney Philip Lowenthal said the prosecution will present a case long on details about what happened but short on evidence showing who did it.

Lowenthal said the prosecution will present a lot of evidence about how Ritte and other residents don't like the ranch, but that disliking the ranch doesn't mean Ritte committed the crimes.

"It doesn't mean he broke the pipes," Lowenthal said. "It doesn't mean he burned the house."

The trial is scheduled to continue through next week.

The prosecution wants to introduce statements made by defendants Clarence "Halona" Kaopuiki and Michael D. Perreira, who are facing separate trials.

But Lowenthal said the statements should not be admitted as evidence because they are hearsay.

Judge Boyd Mossman said before he decides if the statements are admissible, he wants the prosecution to file a written motion.

The attorneys for Kaopuiki and Perreira say their clients plan to exercise their constitutional right against self-incrimination, if called to testify at Ritte's trial, the prosecution told Mossman.