Posted on: Saturday, April 21, 2001

Ex-trustee Wong to fight court action

William Cole
Advertiser Courts Writer

The attorney for Richard "Dickie" Wong yesterday said he will ask for a dismissal of the perjury re-indictment of the former Kamehameha Schools trustee.

A grand jury reindicted Wong this week on two counts of perjury in connection with a 1995 sale of Kamehameha Schools property in Hawai'i Kai. The same charges, thrown out five months ago by Circuit Judge Michael Town, are the subject of an appeal before the Hawai'i Supreme Court.

"Basically, what we'll do is object to jurisdiction — because (prosecutors with the attorney general's office) don't have the authority to bring an indictment that's already before another court," said Wong's attorney, Eric Seitz. "As far as I know, there's no precedent for that."

Wong is "extremely upset" with the reindictment, Seitz said. "He is really sad to have to go through that again and have to put his family through it," the attorney said.

Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Goya had said the new allegations 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)."

Seitz said the prosecution of Wong has turned into an obsession, but Deputy Attorney General Joanne Ha'o disputes that.

"We definitely disagree with his (Seitz's) read on the case," Ha'o said. "Until we've had a chance to present our case to a jury at trial, we've not had our day."

Wong is accused to lying to the grand jury which indicted him on theft charges alleging he received a kickback from the 1995 sale. Town also threw out that theft case, and later threw out the first perjury case.