Waipahu man guilty in landmark forced-labor case
By Ken Kobayashi
Advertiser Courts Writer
A Waipahu man was found guilty yesterday of human trafficking and involuntary servitude charges for smuggling Tongans here to work in conditions approaching slavery at a Nanakuli pig farm and other businesses.
Lueleni Maka, 52, a Tongan national, is the first Hawai'i resident to be charged and convicted under federal involuntary-servitude and forced-labor statutes.
A federal jury found Maka guilty of 34 felony counts of human trafficking, involuntary servitude, alien smuggling and harboring, and unlawful use of documents. The panel found Maka not guilty of one of the counts of unlawful use of documents. A 36th count was dismissed.
The charges carry prison terms of up to 20 years.
Maka was accused of smuggling seven Tongans here in 2001 and forcing six of them to work under violence or threats of violence, at substandard wages, at the pig farm as well as a rock-wall building and landscaping business.
Maka did not take the witness stand, but his lawyer, federal Assistant Public Defender William Domingo, said the Tongans were not forced to work, but wanted the jobs to send money back home. Maka "did not overcome their will," Domingo said.
"Obviously, we're disappointed," Domingo said about the verdict. But he added that he appreciated the jury deliberating over five days.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Shipley declined to comment until the second phase of the case is completed: The jury will return to U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway's courtroom tomorrow to hear prosecution testimony seeking to establish certain points that would increase the length of Maka's sentence.
The points include whether Maka was a ringleader and whether he used dangerous weapons such as a metal spike and 2-by-4 boards on the workers.
The second phase is the result of U.S. Supreme Court and federal appeals court rulings that say a jury must find that the government established certain points before they can be used to increase the sentence.
Maka is being held without bail. His sentencing date will be set after the second phase of the case.
Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
