Ballot issue a main goal for Carlisle
By Ken Kobayashi
Advertiser Courts Writer
Newly re-elected City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said personally handling cases, remaining visible in the community and pushing for a new way to go after felons will be his focus the next four years.
Carlisle, 51, also plans to continue placing a priority on the crystal methamphetamine problem and continue speaking in public on various crime-related issues, including pushing for drug testing in schools.
At the end of his four years, he hopes that drug testing will be widespread in schools, government and private businesses.
Carlisle won an unprecedented third four-year term on Sept. 18 by a wide margin over Keith Kaneshiro, his predecessor and challenger. Carlisle received more than 102,000 votes compared with nearly 60,000 for Kaneshiro in the nonpartisan race.
In a recent interview in his 10th-floor downtown Honolulu office, Carlisle says his main goal is the adoption of a constitutional amendment proposal on the Nov. 2 general election ballot that calls for "information charging."
Currently, a felony defendant must go to trial if indicted by a grand jury or if a judge at a preliminary hearing finds enough evidence to support the criminal charge. The amendment would allow a judge to order felony defendants to trial based on written reports from city and county prosecutors.
Carlisle has been a long-time advocate for the measure. Although some civil-liberties advocates fear it will erode the due process rights of the defendants, Carlisle says the result will be "speedier justice," enabling prosecutors to send cases to trial quicker and helping reduce the number of times victims and witnesses must testify in court.
"If information charging is passed, then my No. 1 priority at least in the first first year is the proper implementation of it," he says.
Carlisle, who believes the city prosecutor should be "vocal, visible and verbal," personally handled an average of about a trial a year during his first two four-year terms. He says his cases, which he hasn't picked yet, will be based on factors that include their significance as well as his expertise in that area of the law.
He's handled trials involving defendants ranging from Byran Uyesugi for the Xerox slayings, former police officer Clyde Arakawa for a fatal collision to Frank Janto for the slaying of a Wahiawa woman whose body was never found.
Carlisle says he will continue to go into the community, such as his appearance last week at Mid-Pacific Institute, the private school considering adopting a voluntary, confidential drug-testing program. He says he'd like to see the widespread adoption of drug testing, but not as a punitive measure.
"I'd like to see it used far more extensively as a diagnostic tool for early intervention," he says.
For private businesses and government jobs, it would be involuntary random testing; for public schools it would have to be voluntary because of current laws, and for private schools, it would be up to them, he says.
His margin of victory in the primary surprised Carlisle, confident he would win, but nervous about the outcome.
When the vote was tallied, Carlisle said the victory was more a reflection of the performance of his staff.
Carlisle credits his staff and cites a number of deputies: Randal Lee, Jean Ireton, Rom Trader, Chris Van Marter, Larry Grean, Glenn Kim and Iwalani White, the first deputy prosecutor. His re-election is a vote of confidence in the staff and "it's really a reflection that these people are making this office an excellent, top-of-the-line law firm," he says.
And his re-election ensures a continuity in the leadership of the office that can undergo a shakeup when a new prosecutor takes over.
Carlisle will be sworn in Jan. 3 to continue heading the office with an annual budget of about $14 million and a staff of about 250, including more than 100 deputy prosecutors.
In other issues, Hawai'i residents won't see Carlisle urging lawmakers to adopt the death penalty, an issue that occasionally surfaces at the Legislature.
He says it's difficult to get it adopted, it's costly and on average, it takes 12 to 14 years before the sentence is carried out. Also, it's not needed here, he says.
He says the state had the lowest homicide rate last year since the 1950s, with 15 deaths.
Carlisle's strong showing likely will prompt speculation that he may run for another office or run again for a fourth term. Carlisle says he definitely won't leave to seek another office in 2006 or run for another elective post in 2008.
But Carlisle hasn't ruled out a fourth term. He says it's way too early to decide. But when asked which way he's leaning, he says he only slightly favors — "about 51 percent" — leaving office after his third term.
Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
