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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, April 20, 2001



Former trustee Wong charged again with perjury

By William Cole
Advertiser Courts Writer

Former Kamehameha Schools trustee Richard "Dickie" Wong was re-indicted on perjury charges yesterday, the fifth time state lawyers have tried to prosecute a former trustee in connection with a 1995 Hawai'i Kai land deal.

Wong's lawyer Eric Seitz denounced the indictment, which repeats perjury allegations that Wong lied to an O'ahu grand jury that later indicted him on theft charges related to the sale of land under the Kalele Kai condominium.

After that theft case was dismissed by Circuit Judge Michael Town in 1999, Wong was indicted that same year for allegedly lying to the grand jurors when he denied wrongdoing in the land sale. That perjury indictment was dismissed by Town last year.

Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Goya said the allegations in yesterday's two-count perjury indictment are basically the same, but his office used a "different tack in terms of the kind of evidence we used to have a grand jury return (the indictment)."

But Seitz said the motive for the new charges is "vindictiveness."

"Mr. Wong has so successfully defended this case time after time after time they (the attorney general's office) have been severely embarrassed," Seitz said.

In addition to the Wong prosecution, the attorney general's office obtained theft indictments twice against former Kamehameha Schools trustee Henry Peters. Town also threw out those indictments.

Both former trustees were accused of accepting kickbacks from developer Jeffrey Stone, Wong's former brother-in-law, who purchased the land. Wong, Peters and Stone all denied they did anything wrong.