A. Rutledge indicted in 1997 witness incident
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
A federal grand jury yesterday indicted Aaron A. Rutledge, son of former hotel workers union head and Unity House official Tony Rutledge and grandson of Hawai'i labor leader Art Rutledge, on charges of trying to persuade an unnamed person to withhold records and other documents from a previous grand jury proceeding.
In addition, Aaron Rutledge is also accused of trying to persuade the same individual to alter, conceal or destroy certain "objects" so they would not be available for use in the prior grand jury proceeding.
The indictment yesterday does not say what the previous grand jury was investigating but it does say the alleged offenses Aaron Rutledge was charged with took place on Oct. 30, 1997.
That was the same day federal investigators searched the home of Art Rutledge and the headquarters of two organizations he once headed.
The agents were armed with subpoenas when they visited the offices of Unity House and Local 5 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union. They spent several hours examining computer files.
At the same time, other agents were at Art Rutledge's home in Kahala going through records in a filing cabinet. They later reported finding bundles of cash stored at the Kahala home.
Art Rutledge died Sept. 22, 1997, at the age of 90. He was the retired leader of Local 5 and the Hawai'i Teamsters union and founded Unity House, an umbrella organization for the two unions, in 1951.
Aaron Rutledge could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Edward Groves, a special attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice tax division, signed the indictment yesterday against Aaron Rutledge but declined to comment on the matter and would not say if any more indictments are expected.
The indictment of Aaron Rutledge comes a day before former Unity House confidant Roberta Cabral is to be sentenced in federal court for her role in defrauding the organization out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, money that was supposed to be used to produce a television movie about the labor movement in Hawai'i.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
