Posted on: Friday, May 24, 2002

Marijuana advocate sues County Council

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — Six Hawai'i County Council members have been sued for allegedly violating the county's charter by continuing to fail to do a review of the county's marijuana enforcement program.

Roger Christie, a longtime marijuana advocate who filed the lawsuit Wednesday, had previously won part of a $75,000 out-of-court settlement for allegedly illegal enforcement actions.

The lawsuit named as defendants County Council Chairman Jimmy Arakaki and members Aaron Chung, Leningrad Elarionoff, Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd, Gary Safarik and Dominic Yagong. All are Democrats, except for Republican Elarionoff. He and Safarik are former police officers.

Christie is acting as his own attorney in the dispute.

Christie and others took the council to court in the past for allegedly not meeting the charter provisions that require audits of certain programs every four years.

No audit has been done with the marijuana eradication program, which involves federal money and use of helicopters.

Police opponents say an audit would show graft and waste in the program, which is conducted under a joint agreement between the county police vice squad and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

This suit did not involve Jonathan Adler of Puna, who is now running for governor, or Aaron Anderson, who with Christie received the out-of-court settlement from the council in August 2001.

Adler said yesterday he expected follow-up action to seek removal of the council members for knowingly violating the charter. Earlier efforts to impeach a former mayor and a majority of the council were denied by Big Island Circuit Judge Riki May Amano.