Campaign defendant
wants judge to be recusedEdward Chun's guilt has been
prejudged, his attorney claims
A week before going to trial, a lawyer indicted by an Oahu grand jury for alleged illegal campaign contributions to Mayor Jeremy Harris has asked that Circuit Judge Steven Alm be thrown off the case.
Attorneys for local lawyer Edward Chun filed a motion on Monday to disqualify Alm or seek his recusal, saying Alm threatened to impose jail time if Chun entered into a plea agreement with city prosecutors.
Dale Lee, Chun's attorney, said in a court memorandum that Alm prejudged his client's guilt without hearing evidence.
According to Lee, Alm stated during a closed-door status conference on July 10 that Chun knew what he was doing was illegal. Lee said that Chun was prepared to enter a no-contest plea to lesser charges but was told by Alm that he does not allow no-contest pleas because such pleas allow defendants to say that they have not done anything wrong.
"These circumstances demonstrate ... a question whether the court's impartiality may be questioned," Lee wrote.
Disqualification motions for a judge are rarely filed in Hawaii's criminal courts, and the granting of such a motion is even more rare, legal experts said.
Alm, who could not be reached for comment, has scheduled a hearing on Chun's motion for Monday. Chun's trial also is set to begin on Monday.
Alm has served as a state circuit judge since May 2001 and is a former U.S. attorney for Hawaii who prosecuted several high-profile public corruption cases.
During his tenure as the top federal prosecutor in Hawaii, Alm's office convicted former state legislators Milton Holt and Daniel Kihano and initiated charges that led to the convictions of ex-United Public Workers chief Gary Rodrigues and former City Councilman Andy Mirikitani.
Chun, 71, is a partner in the local law firm of Chun Kerr Dodd Beaman & Wong and is a longtime corporate counsel for local grocery chain Food Pantry Ltd.
An Oahu grand jury indicted Chun in May on misdemeanor charges of using false names on political donations and of exceeding the state's $4,000 campaign contribution limit for mayoral races.
According to the indictment, Chun allegedly advised three employees of Food Pantry to donate $9,000 to Harris' 1996 and 2000 mayoral campaigns. The indictment also alleged that Food Pantry reimbursed the employees for the contributions.
Although Food Pantry provided the money for the contributions, prosecutors said that the company's board had no knowledge of the contributions and did not approve the reimbursements.
