[ OUR OPINION ]
IF you commit a crime, you'll do the time ... but not just yet. City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle has put the process on hold for many offenders because his office doesn't have enough lawyers to screen charges that police want to file. The delay means that the link between the law-enforcement system and the courts is broken and needs to be fixed. The fracture should not be allowed to remain or recur. Public denied full
protection in crimes
THE ISSUE The city prosecutor has been advising police to refrain from filing criminal charges in various nonviolent cases.
Carlisle sent a memorandum to Police Chief Lee Donohue in December saying police should refrain from bringing charges in numerous nonviolent crimes because the prosecutor's office is short on funds. Carlisle says the division that screens cases that police want taken to court has only two prosecutors instead of the three that are needed. Prosecutors cannot be reassigned from other duties, he explains, because his office is understaffed by six lawyers.
The result is that people arrested for auto theft and other cases, mainly property crimes, are set free for a lengthy time waiting for grand juries to indict them. Criminals are on to the new rules, typically telling the arresting officer, "You got my address. This is not a violent crime," according to Capt. Carlton Nishimura.
"We arrest them, they get let out, we arrest them again," Donohue told the Star-Bulletin's Nelson Daranciang. "Some have been released from prison; they get arrested four times since being released, they're still not being charged."
During the first five months of this year, 3,319 auto thefts were reported on Oahu, a 37 percent increase from the same period last year. However, only 47 of the 435 suspects arrested for auto theft during that time have been charged with the crime. The remaining 378 who were arrested were released uncharged. Normally, 161 of those suspects would have entered the court system and been scheduled for trial.
Carlisle's memo advises police to go ahead and file charges against career criminals, transients, serious juvenile offenders and suspects in violent cases, Class A felonies, Weed & Seed district crimes and crimes against Waikiki tourists. Crime sprees, repeat offenses, gang crimes, prostitution and crimes against the elderly were removed from the charging criteria, allowing suspects to remain free while awaiting indictments sometime in the future.
Carlisle and the City Council should not allow budget restrictions to determine whether the judicial process should be put off until better times. Carlisle is hopeful that he will be able to add another lawyer to his screening division when the new fiscal year begins next Monday. The City Council should make sure that happens. For too many victims of property crimes during the past half year, justice delayed has meant public protection denied.
BACK TO TOP
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, Editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, Assistant Editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, Assistant Editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comMary Poole, Editorial Page Editor, 529-4790; mpoole@starbulletin.com
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (USPS 249460) is published daily by
John Flanagan, Contributing Editor 294-3533; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
Oahu Publications at 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813.
Periodicals postage paid at Honolulu, Hawaii. Postmaster: Send address changes to
Star-Bulletin, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802.
