Court briefs

Advertiser Staff

Man pleads guilty to illegal import

A 27-year-old Honolulu man faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine after he pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to violating the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna by importing an endangered species of orchid from Malaysia.

U.S. Attorney Edward Kubo said Neil Oyama admitted importing the Paphiopedilum orchids with the knowledge that they had been collected in the wild and that importing them was illegal.

The plants, which are also know as Lady Slipper orchids, receive the highest level of protection under the international convention, the same level given to pandas, monk seals and orangutans, Kubo said.

Oyama is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren on March 3.

Campers face drug, gun charges

Two men are facing federal firearms charges after a pair of U.S. Park Service Rangers reported finding them Friday afternoon at a campsite at the Halape Backcountry Campground, in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, with a bag of marijuana, a rifle and two handguns.

Charged with being unlawful users of a controlled substance in possession of firearms were Donald Dale Milligan and Marcus Lee Elliott.

According to an affidavit filed in the case, the rangers became suspicious when they saw a .22-caliber rifle leaning up against a rock in plain view at a campsite used by Elliott and Milligan.