Posted at 4:15 p.m., Wednesday, June 13, 2001

Charges against ex-estate trustee thrown out again

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

For the second time, a state judge today threw out perjury charges against former Kamehameha Schools trustee Richard "Dickie" Wong, clearing him of all state criminal charges.

But Wong still isn't out of the woods yet. The Hawai'i Supreme Court is considering an appeal by the state attorney general on a similar perjury indictment that was dismissed by Circuit Judge Michael Town last year.

Wong was accused of lying to an O'ahu grand jury in 1999 about a 1995 real estate deal with his former brother-in-law, Jeffrey Stone. The two-count indictment was in connection with the sale of land under the Kalele Kai condominium in Hawai'i Kai.

Wong and fellow former Kamehameha Schools trustee Henry Peters were indicted on theft charges related to the land deal. But Town threw out the charges against the two.

Town dismissed similar charges against Peters when he was reindicted. But the Attorney General's office pursued charges against Wong and he was reindicted on the perjury charges.

Those charges were thrown out by Town last year, but the state appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court and got a second perjury indictment, which was thrown out today.

In dismissing the latest charges, Town today ruled that his court had no jurisdiction in the matter because the Supreme Court has yet to issue a decision on the appeal.