Judge Alm to preside over campaign donor cases
| • | Big Isle official reassigned pending trial |
Advertiser Staff
A judge who recently sentenced an attorney to jail in the wide-ranging probe of illegal campaign contributions to Mayor Jeremy Harris will preside over the cases of nine defendants connected to the R.M. Towill engineering company unless the state Supreme Court intervenes.
Defense attorneys have tried to steer the cases away from Circuit Judge Steven Alm, and on Thursday asked the high court to overrule another judge's refusal to transfer the cases to a lower court.
But Circuit Judge Dan Kochi refused yesterday to delay the cases while the matter is before the Supreme Court, and assigned them to Alm for trial in February.
Several judges have granted defendants the chance to wipe their records clean in similar cases after paying fines. But Alm sentenced attorney Edward Chun to 10 days in jail after Chun pleaded guilty this month to a misdemeanor campaign violation.
A defense attorney and deputy prosecutor each accused the other last week of trying to influence the outcome of the cases involving the nine defendants by steering them to a particular court or judge.
Most misdemeanors are heard in District Court, but Kochi ruled that the cases should remain in Circuit Court since they originated there through grand jury indictments.
The defendants include R.M Towill Corp. executives Nancy K. Matsuno, Kenneth T. Sakai, Roy Tsutsui and retired Towill controller Robert Y. Ko.
The others are Hawai'i County deputy clerk Jay Mende, his brother Donn S. Mende, and their mother Masae Mende, along with John Adversalo and Daniel K. Rosario. All pleaded not guilty yesterday.
