2000-03-18 Charter Commission Minutes

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minutes 03-18-00Page 6 of 27 ROSS: I can write it out if you want a suggestion. I mean, I can make a proposed - RAY: That would be very helpful if you could submit - ROSS: It will be? Okay. How long can you wait because I have - RAY: We don’t have to have it today. ROSS: No, of course not. But if you get it in about three weeks, is that okay? No? RAY: I would rather have it - PRANKE: Before April 1st, Henry. Before April 1st. RAY: I would rather have it sooner than three weeks. ROSS: April 1st? I can’t do that. PRANKE: Before that. ROSS: I can’t. I have (indiscernible) in Honolulu. PRANKE: That’s their last meeting, Henry. ROSS: Okay, as soon as possible. Let’s say probably two weeks. I’ll put two weeks. How’s that? RAY: Yes, we’ll be considering changes, Mr. Ross and Mr. Pranke, for way past April 1st. ROSS: Okay, of course, and it’s up to you what you pick, and you can change the wording and everything. That’s your right. RAY: That’s right. Right. ROSS: Now, then what happened is the arresting officer, one of the five arresting officers - Imagine, 75 years old - And the Case Manager of the Kamuela police stated to the Police Commission investigator - I have those papers if you want them added - that they don’t know what the Constitution is. They did. I mean, you know, they were sworn in on the Constitution. They didn’t know, when I said the word ‘Constitution’, they didn’t know what I was talking about. ‘I don’t know anything about these things’, and so on. I think, you know, this deserves some attention and sufficient to put it in the Charter maybe. Okay. The Police Commission did not ask for statements under oath from the policemen, which is absolutely a mistake. It was all done under the table in a secret meeting and so on, which is absolutely unnecessary because there’s no privilege involved accept addresses and phone numbers, and they can leave them out. As far as I’m concerned, they can leave a lot of other things out too, but it ought to be a public hearing. All courts are public. This was a kangaroo hearing. I don’t know what they discussed at all. Anyway, it concluded that my complaint was unfounded, maybe not that word, but whatever. I just made this up. IRVINE: Henry, was this the Police Commission you’re talking about? ROSS: Yes, the Police Commission. IRVINE: Okay. ROSS: They refused me a contested case hearing, which I have a right under Chapter 91. They refused that, and they’re going to refuse it again in an upcoming case. All deliberations were behind closed doors, and as I said, that was illegal under Chapters 91, 92, and 92(f). Then I found out later the police erased a part of the tapes of the case which had timely been asked the prosecutor to preserve, and with a copy to the Chief of Police, etc., etc., they are not there. I have statements in the form of depositions and so on, that the guy in charge of the documents in the police station does not have anything else but the police report and one other document. The rest has been destroyed, obviously, if you ask me, to hide their mistakes that file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 03-18-00.html7/1/2011