Trustee Jervis
wins delay in
hearing for removal

The judge also rejects Bronster's
request to temporarily
remove Lokelani Lindsey

By Rick Daysog
Star-Bulletin

A state judge today granted Bishop Estate trustee Gerard Jervis' request to delay a March 29 hearing over his temporary removal from the board of the multibillion dollar estate.

Probate Judge Kevin Chang also dismissed Attorney General Margery Bronster's request to temporarily remove trustee Lokelani Lindsey from the board on the grounds that Lindsey is already the subject of a removal petition brought by fellow trustees Jervis and Oswald Stender.

Lindsey's attorneys had argued that the temporary removal plan would in essence put their client on trial twice for the same allegations. The outcome of Stender's and Jervis' removal trial will be decided soon by Circuit Judge Bambi Weil.

"I'm very pleased at the ruling because it shows that in this country you only get one bite of the apple," said Lindsey's lawyer David Gierlach.

As for Jervis' new trial date, Chang set an April 6 status conference to determine if Jervis is fit to take part in a removal trial. The postponement does not affect the March 29 temporary removal trial for trustees Henry Peters and Richard "Dickie" Wong.

Jervis is currently at Castle Medical Center where he is recovering from a March 11 overdose of sleeping pills. Jervis apparently attempted to commit suicide after an estate employee, Rene Ojiri Kitaoka, killed herself the previous week. Kitaoka and Jervis were caught in a compromising situation in a Waikiki hotel's restroom the day before Kitaoka's suicide.

The attorney general's office had opposed the postponement and called for the immediate removal of trustee Gerard Jervis, calling Jervis' recent actions "self-destructive" and "bizarre."

In a related Bishop Estate matter, Chang this morning approved a plan to hand over the Internal Revenue Service's preliminary findings in its audit of the trust to the attorney general's office.

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