Judge keeps
work-abuse case
on track for trial

Samoa factory owner
Kil Soo Lee challenges the
Hawaii court's jurisdiction

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By Jean Christensen
Associated Press

A federal judge rejected a request yesterday to temporarily halt subpoenas for a grand jury investigating allegations of worker abuse at a garment factory in American Samoa.

The request was made by Kil Soo Lee, who was indicted by a federal grand jury in April on charges of involuntary servitude and forced labor in the U.S. territory 2,300 miles south of Hawaii.

Lee is accused of underpaying and abusing workers at his now-closed Daewoosa Samoa factory, which employed mostly women from Vietnam.

His public defender, Alexander Silvert, said the federal government has subpoenaed roughly a dozen American Samoan residents who worked at the factory. Silvert said letters have been issued notifying three management officials and an employee that the grand jury is considering charging them with a crime.

Silvert argued before U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway that the grand jury should not go forward with an investigation of alleged crimes at the factory until the court decides whether the federal court in Hawaii has jurisdiction in the case.

Mollway said Lee did not have standing to request a halt to others' subpoenas, and that it was not within her authority to intrude on the grand jury process under the current circumstances.

Mollway is scheduled to hear arguments Aug. 27 on a motion by Lee, a 51-year-old South Korean national, to dismiss the case on grounds that the Hawaii court lacks jurisdiction.