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CHAIR: Mr. Ashida, you heard the chronological order, kind of what happened. Do you
<br />agree with the dates that were brought up?
<br />ASHIDA: I do.
<br />CHAIR: And were you present at the forum?
<br />ASHIDA: No.
<br />CHAIR: Okay. So your only knowledge of it came through the video that was posted.
<br />ASHIDA: Yes.
<br />CHAIR: Can you tell us exactly what prompted you to respond the way you did to
<br />Hunter Bishop's blog?
<br />ASHIDA: After I viewed the video, that's what prompted me.
<br />CHAIR: Okay. Was there any specific reason you felt it necessary to bring in the names
<br />of the –
<br />ASHIDA: Well, I think that —first of all, if you look at what —I know there's been some
<br />reference that I wrote a letter, you know, on our letterhead, and that's not the case.
<br />Actually, I emailed Hunter Bishop. Hunter Bishop and I have known each other for some
<br />time. He was a former reporter of the Hawai `i Tribune- Herald and I was you know, I
<br />served as a prosecuting attorney in this County for thirteen and a half years. And
<br />actually I first met Hunter, I think back in the late 80's, when I prosecuted Mynah Bird,
<br />Melvin Mynah Bird Medeiros, on some charges, and that's when 1 first met Hunter. He
<br />worked for the Tribune - Herald at the time, and he wrote stories, and since then we've
<br />had I'd say a pretty decent professional relationship, So I follow his blog, as well as
<br />other blogs, because I just want to get a —I just need to know what's being said out there
<br />about the County, not just my office but the County in general. So when I read his —this
<br />article, and he provided- -my recollection is he provided a link to the video, so I clicked
<br />on one of his links, and then I saw the video. And I didn't send a letter to Hunter —I sent
<br />this email to Hunter, and it wasn't my expectation at the time that he was going to print it
<br />verbatim, you know —it's addressed to Hunter. The thing about being signed "Lincoln
<br />Ashida, Corporation Counsel, County of Hawai `i, " that's one of those auto - texts. I put in
<br />LSTA, press enter, and all of that automatically comes up, so that's how that happened.
<br />And then after —I guess he got this, Hunter called me up and said hey Linc, did you
<br />intend for this to be public. And I told him yeah, you know —I stand by what I said. Then
<br />the next thing I know, he reprinted this verbatim, you know, as is. And I thought okay,
<br />that's fine. 1 didn't expect that, but that's fine. I stand by what I said So that's how 1
<br />guess —talk about how Gary Safarik's name got interjected, it was really basically what 1
<br />observed. If, my recollection serves, when I saw the video, after Mr. Joseph made his
<br />comments, they went down the line, and I think it was Kale Gumapac —my recollection is
<br />Kale Gumapac said he had nothing to add. I believe that Ms. Stocksdale also said
<br />nothing to add, or something like that. But I remember Emily saying, "No, Wayne said it
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