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Lobster ban sought in monk seal waters
Three environmental groups, seeking to save the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, want to close areas in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands used by bottomfish fisheries and people catching lobsters.Greenpeace Foundation, the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network filed suit yesterday in U.S. District Court against the National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Department of Commerce for failing to properly manage the Hawaii-based lobster and bottomfish fishing areas, or fisheries.
The groups contend that seal pups are starving because of "gross overfishing," which may result in their extinction.
The Hawaiian monk seal population has dwindled to 1,300 from 1,400, they allege. The seals inhabit the northwestern islands.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, parent agency of the fisheries service, will defend this lawsuit, said Judson Feder, Southwest Regional counsel for NOAA.
4 gas stations fined for fuel-leak violations
Three Oahu gas stations have been cited and fined $1,200 each for failing to take fuel-leak safety steps.Violations leading to a $1,450 fine were found at the Lanai City Service Station during inspections this month by Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Health officials.
Since 1998, federal law requires underground fuel storage tanks to have equipment that prevents spills and corrosion and detects leaks.
Cited on Oahu were an Arco station owned by BC Oil Ventures on Hui Iwa Street, Kaneohe; Aloha Petroleum 7-Eleven Store on Kalakaua Avenue, and Aloha Petroleum 7-Eleven Store on Kapalama Avenue.
Inmates due for release returned to islands
About 80 inmates eligible for parole or work release returned to Hawaii from the mainland yesterday, a day later than expected.State Public Safety Director Ted Sakai said the private airplane transporting the inmates experienced mechanical problems in Oklahoma City.
"The problem was with the plane," Sakai said. "First we couldn't get parts, and then they flew the parts in from Chicago.
"There was still a problem, so they used a different plane."
The 80 Hawaii inmates, mostly men, completed their sentences at prisons in Minnesota and Oklahoma.
"All have qualified for release back into the community," Sakai said. "They will be paroled, sent to Kulani for treatment before release or be in work release."
Judge affirms Kauai boating firms' rights
LIHUE -- The Department of Land and Natural Resources violated state law when it threw two Na Pali Coast tour boating companies out of Hanalei last year, Kauai's Circuit Court Judge George Masuoka has ruled.Hanalei Sport Fishing & Tours and Whitey's Boat Cruises were two of the handful of state-permitted boating companies allowed to keep operating when Gov. Ben Cayetano evicted all nonpermitted boaters in 1998.
The two companies sued the state, claiming the DLNR had no authority to ban motorized boats.
The judge ruled the prohibition of motorized commercial boats in Hanalei Bay is a "rule" under state law and that the DLNR failed to go through the required rule-making procedures. Meanwhile, the agency has begun the rule-making process to ban motorized commercial tour boats.
Courts
Suspect in video clerk's death found fit for trial
A 35-year-old man charged with murdering Waikiki video store clerk Keith Miyashiro last year has been found mentally fit to go to trial.Circuit Judge Michael Town yesterday declared Samuel Cooper Jr., 35, competent to stand trial after three doctors appointed by the court found he was fit to proceed and assist in his defense.
Cooper's trial is scheduled for the week of June 5.
His attorney, deputy public defender Ronette Kawakami, had requested the mental exam because Cooper has a history of mental illness.
Miyashiro was found unconscious on the floor of the video store in August. Money was missing from a cash box that had been pried open. He died the next day.
Doctors said his skull had been fractured and his brain damaged.
Further investigation revealed Miyashiro apparently had been struck on the head with an industrial roll of shrink wrap. Fingerprints from the shrink wrap and cash box were identified as Cooper's, according to police.
Big Isle men plead guilty in theft of camping gear
Two Big Island men pleaded guilty last week to stealing a kayak and camping gear, valued at more than $5,000, from a rental vehicle parked at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, said U.S. Attorney for Hawaii Steven Alm.Raymond L. Perrells, 37, and Robert Hanohano, 41, will be sentenced May 1 and May 8, respectively, by Judge Alan Kay. They could each be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined $250,000.
Man to be sentenced for impersonating a marshal
Eric W. Schroeder will be sentenced May 8 after pleading guilty yesterday to impersonating a member of the U.S. Marshals Service.Schroeder, a process server not employed by the federal government, represented himself to a Banyan Tree Plaza security guard as a member of the Marshals Service when he tried to serve a subpoena on May 8, 1999 in connection with a criminal case.
Schroeder could be sentenced up to three years in prison and fined as much as $250,000 by Judge Susan Oki Mollway.
U.S. retailers face trial here for violating rights
A class-action lawsuit against the Gap, J.C. Penney Co., Sears Roebuck, Wal-Mart and other major U.S. retailers for alleged human-rights violations in Saipan garment factories will be tried in Hawaii.This case is the first attempt to hold U.S. retailers accountable for mistreatment of workers in foreign-owned factories operating on U.S. soil, say attorneys for the factory workers.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week denied the retailers' appeal of Los Angeles federal court Judge Christina Snyder's ruling in September moving the trial from Los Angeles to Hawaii.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge David Ezra. No trial date has been set.
The suit contends that the retailers purchased their clothes manufactured in sweatshops on the Western Pacific island of Saipan, a U.S. commonwealth.
Chinese smuggling ring leader gets 15 years
One of the leaders of a Chinese smuggling ring received a 15-year prison sentence in U.S. District Court in Saipan last week.Peng Shi, a 27-year-old Chinese national, helped smuggle hundreds of illegal Chinese immigrants to the United States through Guam, officials said. Testimony during his trial in October revealed that many passengers, who paid more than $7,000 for the trip, were severely beaten during the journey.
Shi's ship was one of five Chinese smuggling ships interdicted in the South Pacific by the U.S. Coast Guard in April and May 1999. Federal attorneys have prosecuted 29 individuals, 20 of whom have already been sentenced to terms of four to 46 months.
Shi's sentence was the highest ever in the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Honolulu District, which extends to Guam.
Corrections
Savio Development Co. has converted 3,500 apartments to condominiums since 1981. A story Tuesday said incorrectly that the company had converted 3,000 units from leasehold to fee-simple.
Police, Fire, Courts
By Star-Bulletin staffHonolulu Police Department Crimestoppers
Leeward Coast shooting is under investigation
Police arrested at least two suspects in connection with a shooting this morning in Nanakuli where a 24-year-old man was critically injured.A friend brought an unconscious and critically wounded man to Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center at 3:50 a.m. The man suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest, police said.
He was taken by helicopter to Queen's Hospital at 4:45 a.m. where he was undergoing surgery, said Detective John Dorsey.
Police believe the shooting occurred at Depot Beach Park in Nanakuli. The park was cordoned off all morning while police searched for evidence.
The arrests were made after witnesses were questioned at the Waianae police station.
Busy robber hits branch of American Savings
The American Savings Bank branch at Kamehameha Shopping Center was robbed yesterday by a man who allegedly tried to rob another bank 30 minutes earlier.The FBI says the suspect entered American Savings Bank at 3:45 p.m., passed a demand note to a teller and fled carrying an undisclosed amount of cash in a brown grocery bag.
At 3:15 p.m., the same man attempted to rob the Hawaii National Bank branch at Kamehameha Shopping Center but left the bank without any money, the FBI said.
The suspect in yesterday's robberies is a short, slender man, about 60, who was wearing a long-sleeved sweatshirt with a photo of "Olive Oyl," the girlfriend of the cartoon character "Popeye."
Man faces charges in stabbing of woman
Police charged a man yesterday in connection with the stabbing of a woman at Diamond Head Crater on Sunday.Chad Pacheco, 26, was charged with second-degree attempted murder, police said. He is being held on $100,000 bail.
A truck they were in, crashed into a tree along Diamond Head Road before coming to a stop partially hanging over an embankment.
When police and fire responded, they discovered the woman had been stabbed several times.
Pacheco was arrested after being released from the hospital. The woman was in critical condition Sunday. No further information has been released.
Kunia man arrested in woman's beating
Police arrested a Kunia man this morning for allegedly beating his girlfriend and breaking her ribs.The couple were at his Huli Street home when they started arguing at 7 p.m. last night. The suspect, 28, grabbed his girlfriend, 34, by the hair and dragged her into her car, then drove her to a pineapple field where he beat her, police said.
While the man searched for a weapon, she was able to flee from the car and hide in the pineapple field. The suspect drove off with her car, police said. He turned himself into police at 6 a.m. today.
Police seek Big Isle pair in shooting-at-cop case
HILO -- Police are asking for the public's help in trying to find two men who may have been involved in shooting at a policeman in South Kona Sunday.Police are looking for Ronald Kimo Barawis Jr. 22, and Pedro Hanalei Barawis-Haili, 20, who are cousins from Kona.
The shooting took place at 9:15 p.m. when an officer tried to stop a car for a traffic violation. The car sped away with the passenger shooting at and hitting the police car, which ended the chase.
Warehouse roof collapse did not cause spillage
The collapse of a warehouse roof at a Pearl City-based horticultural supply business yesterday did not result in any chemical spillage, according to a Honolulu Fire Department hazardous materials officer."The warehouse is loaded with agricultural chemicals but nothing was breached," HazMat Capt. Carter Davis said of the 12:18 p.m. alarm at 96-1345 Waihona St. in Pearl City Industrial Park.
A termite-eaten beam gave way, causing a section of the warehouse roof to collapse, Davis said.
Big Island house burns after TV set catches fire
HILO -- A house fire caused by a television set catching fire caused $20,000 damage to the living room of a home on Uilani Street owned by Patrick Tani yesterday, the Fire Department said.The remainder of the house, valued at $80,000, was saved. The occupants, Cheryl Malendres and her three children, were not hurt.
