CHC 1979-01-30 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MR. CADINHA: You just ask for a subpoena and you can get it? MR. ONO: We can get a subpoena duces tecum to present-to get any document before the court turned over :to us by a subpoena duces tecum. The only difference here ; :_ that rather than going through the court it would go directly to us. Now the protecting thing here would be that the person who receives the subpoena may file process in court to have it quashed. In other words , they can have the court determine early whether they must honor it or not. So they do not have caxKacTs to put themselves in the position of waiting for a contempt of X13 court. They can take an active Eol.;°D and say, "Hey, wait a Kole minute, I don ' t think you can get this document from me"-or- "we 're not going to turn it over to you and we don ' t think that subpoena is correct" . At that point, they can always go to the court to have the court make that determination. MR. CADINHA: At their expense? MR. ONO: Yes , that is what it ends up being. MR. SCHUTTE: Mr. Ono, I can look at a number of these proposals that you have here. The suggestions that as you mentioned are for housekeeping purposes and when we get down to the portion here where the Prosecuting Attorney or his deputy having the power to administer oaths and issue subpoenas , to compel the attendance of witnesses and production of docu- ments, I would say it is very questionable. It is my under- standing that the procedure that is adhered to today allows the court to scrutinize the request for subpoenas when it involves the rights of the privacy of a member of this community or state. What you are asking, here, and what you say exists today, I think is two different things because today you can get a subpoena. You may issue a subpoena. . .and if that is the case why is it necessary to go through what you suggest here of putting this into the Charter where you don ' t have to go through judge or. . . MR. ONO: No, that is not correct. We still do it through the judge. The judge ' s signature is on that subpoena. MR. SCHUTTE: That is today? MR. ONO: Yes. Or the Clerk of the Court' s signature is on the subpoena. But, the difference is that in order to. . .in the case of a subpoena duces tecum, which is to bring documents. In order to get the documents we have the additional step of going through the courts. In other words, the documents are presented to the court and then the court gives it to us. MR. SCHUTTE: Okay, hold it right there. Then what you are saying is that you are eliminating having to go through the court, you want to be able to MR. ONO: Eliminating in the sense that we have to physically walk over to the courtroom to pick up docu- -11-