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From: Tim Rees (808) 959-5023 January 4, 2007 P.O. Box 1787 Pahoa, Hawaii 96778 To: All Hawaii County Council Members; 2006-2008 Subject: Addendum to Oral Testimony presented on January 4, 2007 Re: Bi11147 (Draft 2) Re: Bi11258 (Draft 6) These are my opinions on Bills: 147 and 258. Bill 147 (Draflt 2) Bill 147 is little more than a thinly disguised attempt to defeat Constitutional Rights to Due Process by mechanism of a "Legislative decriminalization" of conduct. There is no better way to demonstrate this than to explain the abuses that have occurred in our District Courts (with Bench Judges only - no juries) regarding HRS 249-2. These abuses would have ended immediately upon the first case brought before an unbiased jury of peers. However, since 1994 with the enactment of HRS Chapter 291 D (Adjudication of Traffic Infractions) the right to a jury trial is not allowed even if you are willing to pay all associated costs. The District Courts routinely and in some cases the Circuit Courts, have egregiously abused the simple premises of 291 D even though the Judiciary was given unprecedented access during the Legislative process and a continuing right to remediate any problems presented by the "decriminalization" process. Chapter 291D would have worked fine if we had Honest, Competent, and Unbiased Judges to implement it. This didn't happen. One of the biggest problems was that the Judges Statewide in @ 90% of contested citations did not allow informa1291 D-8 "Hearings" as contemplated by the Legislature. Instead, they would immediately enter Judgment for the State without any defense allowed; impose Fines and Court Costs; and Order a defendant back for a full HRPP "Trial" forcing them to pay up without any defense or have to take more time off work, hire an attorney to appear at the "Trial", etc. These actions were in direct contravention of Chapter 291 D and its rational purposes as eloquently stated in 291D-1: Purpose. Please read it when you have time. I have many Transcripts and Court Autolog tapes proving the above. Again, these circumstances would not have occurred but for the fact that the trust we place in twelve unbiased peers through our Social Contract was relegated to one fallible Bench Judge. Bill 147 Draft 2 anticipates a similaz reduction of Constitutional guarantees and should be defeated today. I spent many hours researching the records of the Third Circuit Court yesterday. I could find only one relevant case Comm. No. 2 Ref. Tod 1 Ref. Uate JAN 4 2067