State asks for review of Wong charges
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By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer
The state attorney general's office yesterday made a move to revive a perjury indictment against former Bishop Estate trustee Richard "Dickie" Wong, asking Circuit Court Judge Michael Town to reconsider his June dismissal of the indictment.
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Alleging that Wong lied to a grand jury, the state has charged Wong with perjury on two separate occasions. The first indictment was dismissed by Town and under appeal by the state when Town dismissed the second action last month. The judge ruled that he lacked jurisdiction, since the previous indictment was already on appeal before the Supreme Court.
Richard "Dickie" Wong was charged twice with perjury.
During a hearing before Town yesterday, Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Goya said the Supreme Court has ruled on a portion of the appeal, clearing the way for Wong's indictment on one of the two perjury counts to be reinstated.
Goya also cited a California case in which the courts allowed prosecutors there to decide whether to pursue an appeal of a dismissed indictment to a higher court, or to drop the appeal to bring a new indictment.
The perjury charges against Wong were an outgrowth of the state's investigation, starting in 1997, into five former trustees' management of the multibillion-dollar trust formerly known as the Bishop Estate.
The investigation led to separate theft charges against Wong and former trustee Henry Peters, related to a 1995 sale of trust land under the Kahele Kai condominium in Hawai'i Kai.
Town dismissed the charges against the two men in 1999, but Peters was reindicted on the theft charge. That charge also was dropped by Town.
In 1999, Wong was indicted on charges that he lied about the land deal to the grand jury that had returned the theft indictment. Town threw out that perjury indictment last year.
The state appealed the dismissal and obtained the second perjury indictment, again alleging that Wong lied to the same grand jury. Wong, who maintains his innocence, has called the state's action a "vendetta."
Town took the request for reconsideration of his June ruling under advisement yesterday, but said it may be 30 to 90 days before he decides the issue.
