"Why would we want to put ourselves in harm's way if we know that there will be no action taken against a player who assaults a teammate or referee?" Benz said.

Benz was one of more than a dozen soccer, football and basketball referees who testified or submitted testimony before the Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs committee yesterday in support of a bill that would make it a felony crime to assault or threaten an athletic official.

The hearing was in response to a Feb. 9 incident in which a Ko-nawaena basketball player tackled referee Mason Souza after the player was ejected from the game in Kona.

The Konawaena basketball and Baldwin soccer incidents — both captured on home video and shown on Hawai'i newscasts — have drawn the attention of lawmakers and concerned athletic officials who are struggling with a nationwide shortage in their ranks.

This week, referee Alex Dahlman, 22, said he was threatened by a Mililani spectator in a near-empty parking lot following a girls state soccer tournament match on Friday. Dahlman's case has launched an investigation by the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association.

In Hawai'i, there have been at least six incidents in which football officials were attacked and 10 more where football officials were threatened in the past 33 years, according to Jim Beavers, the O'ahu Interscholastic Association commissioner for football. Beavers himself was attacked by a spectator in 1994.

Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D-21st, Nanakuli, Makaha), who is the majority leader and chairwoman of the Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs committee, said she remained undecided on the bill's future yesterday.

"We're going to have a decision making on it on Friday," Hanabusa said. "Everybody is asking me what I'm inclined to do right now. I haven't decided yet.

"What I am considering is possibly some kind of a task force with the prosecutors and everyone else, and looking at this issue," Hanabusa added.

The bill aims to protect athletic officials and levy enhanced penalties for anyone who assaults or threatens an athletic official before, during or after an interscholastic, intercollegiate or any other organized amateur or professional athletic contest. A total of 21 states have laws protecting athletic officials, according to the National Association of Sports Officials.

Hanabusa said lawmakers remain hesitant to pass a bill that would open the floodgates for other special interest groups who also seek special protection. In addition, the state's Office of the Public Defender called the bill too harsh.

"An athlete who merely shoved, pushed or contacted a contest official which caused any pain would be guilty of a felony offense," the Office of the Public Defender wrote in testimony. "It should be recognized that the type of persons who will be subjected to this charge would invariably be some of our outstanding athletes and children."

Several groups, including the state Department of Education, the HHSAA, and the city's Prosecuting Attorney, supported the measure.

"This is a problem that's escalating," City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said. "It's not just an absence of collegiality or sportsmanship, it's now outright violence. That needs to be addressed. We'll support the bill and we'll prosecute the cases."

HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya said continued inadequate protection to athletic officials would "expose the many entities involved in athletic contests to various safety and liability concerns." The HHSAA has 87 member schools and more than 30,000 student-athletes throughout the state, Amemiya said.

Soccer referee Ronald R. Sakamoto said the Legislature can send a "clear statement" that physical abuse and threats of physical abuse directed at sports officials are forbidden by enacting the law.

"Just last month, I heard an angry fan screaming and threatening a referee with dirty lickings during a high school girls varsity game," Sakamoto said.

A study by the National Association of Sports Officials that surveyed all 60 executive directors of the 50 state associations revealed that 90 percent of the state association directors indicated there is a shortage of officials, according to Thomas Yoshida, the president of the Hawai'i State Basketball Officials Association.