Former Bishop Estate trustee Gerard Jervis was sentenced to six months' probation yesterday for last year's drunken car chase of a group of teenagers who had thrown eggs at his Lanikai home.

Circuit Judge Randal Lee also ordered Jervis to pay $500 in fines and perform 100 hours of community service.

Jervis was at his home when four young men threw eggs from a passing car at his house the evening of March 7. Jervis got in his car and drove after them in a pursuit that ended when the boys' car ran off the road and traveled up a utility pole guy wire.

Jervis apologized for his actions in a letter to the court and outside court yesterday. But he also said he is a "ready and willing witness" if the prosecutor's office chooses to pursue new charges against the four young men.

"I spent over $1,000 repainting the front of my house," he said.

He said his house has been "egged" more than 30 times, including once since his arrest.

Jervis was originally charged with felony criminal property damage and terroristic threatening as well as drunken driving and harassment.

The prosecutor's office later reduced those charges to petty misdemeanors after defense and prosecution experts determined that the car accident could not have occurred in the way described by a witness.

Jervis pleaded guilty to drunken driving, harassment and reckless driving.

Jervis' lawyer, Victor Bakke, accused the prosecutor's office of mishandling the case and treating it "differently" because of Jervis' high profile in the community.

The 60-year-old Jervis is an attorney who served as one of the Bishop Estate's five trustees from 1994 to 1999, during one of the estate's most turbulent periods.

Bakke told Lee: "There was no investigation in this case. They saw it was Mr. Jervis. This case was handled differently from the very beginning."

'THEY'RE NOT HERE'

Bakke said the four Saint Louis School students who had "terrorized" the Lanikai area with repeated acts of egg-throwing vandalism were "gang members" who were drunk and "attacked Mr. Jervis and his family and his property."

Jervis overreacted to what was done and took responsibility for his actions, Bakke said, "but the men who attacked him were treated differently."

"They're not here today," Bakke said.

Deputy Prosecutor Darrell Wong said he couldn't speak about the four youths because their cases were handled in Family Court and proceedings there are confidential.

"We know what the boys did was irresponsible, was uncalled for and called for punishment as well," Wong said.

When presented with the original evidence in the case, Wong said, his office "had to make a choice."

Based on eyewitness testimony, "what Mr. Jervis appeared to have done was much more serious," Wong said.

Jervis spent some 36 hours in jail before posting $40,000 bond on the original felony charges against him.

Lee's sentence included a jail term covered by the time Jervis already spent behind bars.

Jervis' driver's license was suspended for 90 days after his arrest and Jervis completed substance abuse assessments as well as an anger management program, Bakke said.

NO CHARGES

The students who threw the eggs later issued a public apology for their behavior and a private attorney retained by three of them said police had decided not to pursue criminal charges against the group.

All four refused to testify before the grand jury, saying they would invoke their Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination if called to the witness stand, according to court records.

Eyewitnesses and police described Jervis as angry and verbally abusive after the accident. One witness said he was yelling racial epithets and threatening to "get" the teenagers.

When Jervis was arrested and taken to the Kane'ohe police station for blood-alcohol testing, he was "enraged and irate" and behaved in "a very vulgar, condescending" manner to police, according to grand jury testimony from one officer.

His blood alcohol level was 0.10, slightly above the legal limit of 0.08.