Park manager
gets probationAdam Asquith pleads no contest
to damaging Hawaiian cultural sites
LIHUE >> The former manager of a national wildlife sanctuary on Kauai was placed on probation yesterday after pleading no contest to two misdemeanor charges of damaging two Hawaiian cultural sites.
In a plea bargain with Kauai County prosecutors in District Court, Adam Asquith admitted damaging an ancient Hawaiian irrigation ditch and desecrating a family burial site.
Although the incident took place on private land, Asquith was fired by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service as manager of the Huleia National Wildlife Sanctuary, located upstream of Nawiliwili Harbor.
Asquith's attorney, Randal Valenciano, did not return a call seeking comment.
Asquith was one of Kauai's most vocal advocates for protecting endangered wildlife species. He frequently allied himself with environmental groups fighting development on Kauai.
Nancy McMahon, the state Historic Preservation Division archaeologist on Kauai who investigated the case, said Asquith had purchased private land adjacent to the wildlife reserve and planned to restore some ancient taro loi there.
Asquith had received some grants for the project but not enough to cover the cost of a proper archaeological study, McMahon said.
She said she had worked with Asquith and warned him in writing that all of the restoration had to be done by hand. Instead, she said, he used bulldozers when he cleared the property in 1999.
In the process, he damaged an auwai -- irrigation ditch -- and removed boulders that marked graves of family members of La France Kapaka-Arboleta, one of Kauai's best-known native Hawaiian activists. Kapaka-Arboleta chairs the Hawaiian Burial Commission. The graves were on private land that did not belong to Asquith.
"What possessed him to leave the area of the auwai, venture up the hill and bulldoze a grave site encompassing the remains of my direct ohana is beyond my comprehension," Kapaka-Arboleta said in a written statement.
As part of the sentence, Judge Trudi Senda required Asquith to apologize to the Kapaka family.
