Posted on: Wednesday, May 28, 2003

'A'ala Park drug ruling says it was playground

By Bruce Dunford
Associated Press

A Honolulu man arrested in 1999 during a "Weed & Seed" anti-drug sting in 'A'ala Park lost an appeal yesterday that challenged his being sentenced to a longer prison term just because the crime took place within 1,000 feet of a playground.

Iupeli Migi, 49, was one of six people arrested during a "reverse sting" drug bust who were prosecuted in federal court as part of a coordinated program targeting high-crime areas.

Migi was convicted of six counts of possessing or distributing crack cocaine within 1,000 feet of a playground, subjecting him to twice the maximum term for a federal drug conviction. He was ordered to serve seven years and 11 months in prison.

Before his arrest on federal drug charges, Migi was convicted in state court of assault and drug offenses that occurred within the downtown and Chinatown area, which is part of the "Weed & Seed" district.

His attorney, Georgia McMillen, challenged U.S. District Judge David Ezra's ruling that 'A'ala Park qualified as a playground. She argued that while the federal law defined a playground as containing at least three sets of apparatus intended for the use of children, the law didn't apply to 'A'ala Park because its only apparatus was a swingset.

Ezra had ruled that basketball courts, softball fields and skating rinks also qualified as apparatus under the federal law.

Yesterday, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Ezra.

While Congress didn't distinguish between apparatus designed for play and that for sports, "we find no legal difference between sliding boards, swingsets and teeterboards and basketball courts, softball fields and skating rinks ... " the appeals court ruled.