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MR. SCHUTTE: So what you are saying is that <br /> the existing procedure. . .all it does is eliminate that trip <br /> from the office to the court and going through. . . <br /> MR. ONO: No, that is a:isimplification. . .that <br /> is one of the things that would eliminate. . .it would make it <br /> very much easier for us to investigate that particular type of <br /> crime. But also we were talking about the case of witnesses <br /> who are very reluctant to talk to us. We would then be able <br /> to get them into a situation where they would be forced to at <br /> least acknowledge our presence. . .forced to at least talk to us . <br /> Again, this saves quite a bit of time rather than having to <br /> get a Grand Jury hearing going which involves quite a bit of <br /> cost as well as time. <br /> MR. CADINHA: The bottom line then is not to <br /> save a walk across the street. It sounds to me like what you <br /> are looking for, and correct me if I 'm wrong, is the ability <br /> to coerce somebody that would be a little difficult without <br /> having to go through court. <br /> MR. ONO: Coerce has some very bad connotations. <br /> MR. CADINHA: Well , it is a sense of pressure <br /> coming directly from your office without having to go through <br /> the court procedure. In other words , what is there now in the <br /> current legal process that does not enable you to catch a <br /> legitimate hard criminal? <br /> MR. ONO: Quite a bit, really. <br /> MR. CADINHA: And this would help. . . <br /> MR. ONO: This would help, yes. Like I said, <br /> we have had problems with just a plain witness , I 'm not talking <br /> about a defense witness or a person who is friends with the <br /> defendant or anything else, just a plain witness who tells us <br /> to go take a hike-or-I ' ll talk to you in court. Now they <br /> wouldn ' t have to go through the whole subpoena process, get <br /> the guy over to the court, at the trial , we put him on the stand <br /> and he says , "I didn ' t see anything" . Or he might come out with <br /> something. . .he might say, "Hey, you got the wrong man , I saw so- <br /> and-so do it"as of this time. We have had cases like that and <br /> if we had known that earlier we wouldn ' t have even bothered to <br /> take the case to court. Again, I 'm oversimplifying the entire <br /> process and it is not only in those cases but there are times , <br /> too, when we would like to have a witness pinned down to a <br /> particular statement. He might be giving the police officer one <br /> statement, the investigators another statement and come into our <br /> office and give us another statement. By having the ability to <br /> put him under oath he now would be swearing to what he is saying <br /> to be true which would give us the additional power that if he <br /> is not saying something that is true we could institute criminal <br /> proceedings against him. All of this points up to our trying to <br /> slow down some of the hindrance-. that we have been getting or the <br /> hampering of the furthering of the investigation. We do have <br /> witnesses who tell three or four different stories to three or <br /> -13- <br />