Alleged Navy race case
sent back for new trial

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a jury verdict that found the Navy did not discriminate against a Pearl Harbor shipyard manager who was passed over for promotion in favor of Caucasian applicants from the mainland.

In a decision issued last week, the judges sent the case back to the trial court for a new trial, said Clayton Ikei, attorney for Ronald Obrey.

The judges found that visiting U.S. District Judge Manuel Real committed an error in refusing to allow statistical evidence and testimony from others showing race bias and discrimination in the Navy's hiring practices, he said.

Obrey, a native Hawaiian, filed suit against the Department of the Navy in January 2002 alleging there was a pattern of hiring managers or persons from the mainland who were Caucasian, when there were qualified Asian-Pacific Islander candidates available.

One of the witnesses who were not allowed to testify was Ben Toyama, a union representative who would have testified that he spoke to senior management at Pearl Harbor and was told the Navy didn't believe local workers were good enough to be senior managers, Ikei said.

The case has been referred to as the "gene pool" case because of evidence submitted in the case of an e-mail written by then-Capt. Jeffrey Conners, commander of the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, Ikei said. Conners had talked about the Navy's strategy in staffing senior civilian positions by seeking to "broaden the gene pool" by hiring mainland candidates.

Ikei said Obrey is happy he will get a new trial and will be able to present the statistical evidence they were precluded from presenting to the jury.

"It would show that white applicants for management positions would more likely be promoted," Ikei said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas A. Helper said he expects the government to prevail again at trial.