I am so very embarrassed by the decision of the Honolulu prosecutors office to press ahead with criminal prosecution of U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams for violating Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s emergency orders. And I’m angry, as a citizen and taxpayer, that we’re wasting public funds and resources, and adding unnecessarily to the case load facing Hawaii’s already bogged down courts, to prosecute this public official who was, after all, here to assist the state in ramping up its Covid-19 testing.
I decided to check the court records on his case. Not only did prosecutors follow the original citation by filing a written criminal complaint against Adams, the case has now been assigned to attorneys normally handle felony cases, you know, serious crime.
Here’s an excerpt from the court docket.
Let’s walk back to the beginning.
Adams and an aide were cited by a Honolulu police officer about 10 a.m. on August 20 while stopped at Kualoa Regional Park. Here’s the citation as it appears in court files.
Prosecutors followed with a written criminal complaint, charging that Adams “did intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly enter or remain in a City and County of Honolulu park and/or botanical garden and/or State of Hawaii park within the City with intent, knowledge or reckless disregard of the substantial and unjustifiable risk….”
The citation notes Adams told the officer he did not know the parks were closed to the public. And, of course, the weren’t totally closed to the public, since they allowed people to gain access to the ocean through the park. You may recall that there’s been confusion about these rules all the way along.
How easy would it have been for the officer to simply say, “Well, sir, I’m sorry but the parks are closed by the mayor’s emergency rules, and you’ll have to leave the area. I’m know you understand our attempt to control the Covid outbreak. Thank you for your cooperation. And thank you for your service.”
Would that have been so difficult?
Now that this has become a criminal case, prosecutors must prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that this visitor from Virginia “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly” violated the mayor’s emergency orders. These elements are basic to the supposed “crime.”
Absent proof of those elements, there’s no way to prove a violation of law.
According to an article today in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, prosecutors must believe that an email sent to Adams which included links to county rules was sufficient evidence of an intentional, knowing, or reckless violation. So they didn’t deliver the rules to him, or explain the rules to him. They sent an email with links. Right.
Good luck with that argument in court, folks. Especially with noted defense attorney Michael Green arguing on behalf of Adams and his aide.
The emergency rules, a copy of which was attached to the written criminal complaint, run 45 printed pages. And, it turns out, prosecutors attached the wrong version of the rules and have had to come back an request permission to amend the complaint to attached a corrected version of those rules. That request to amend is still pending.
And note: There have been reports that these citations for violation of emergency rules are being dismissed wholesale.
It didn’t take me more than a couple of minutes to find this example in which prosecutors simply declined further prosecution of 25 individual cases involving citations for violating emergency rules without explanation. All it took was a short, simple declaration by a deputy prosecutor declining further action. No muss, no fuss.
It’s time for prosecutors to stop digging their hole even deeper. Let common sense prevail.
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Agreed. Somebody should either fired or disclipined for this nonsense.
Yes you are correct. The surgeon General should be fined for violating the law.
Talk about selective prosecution! “No one above the law” when local residents are getting off on a wholesale basis? What are the “acting” authorities trying to prove? The Surgeon General of the United States prioritizes Hawaii enough to come out and assess our situation first hand and winds up with a criminal felony charge because he didn’t heed an email he may not have seen or sufficiently absorbed? The Prosecutor’s office is under enough of a cloud that candidates for that office are running on a platform of “cleaning it up” and the staff is trying to prove its metal by this bone-head move? This case needs to be quashed forthwith.
our Mayor and Gov should step up and get this dismissed, such a WASTE of time, money and Goodwill
He was here to HELP us ! a True Leader would speak up about this
More foolishness and Hawaii looks ridiculous. Taxes payers money wasted again.
Hmmm…memories of prosecutorial overzealousness (Christopher Deedy, anyone?) winding up as ultimately having embarrassing egg-on-face outcome seems to be the norm here and under the filthy Kaneshiro/Caldwell regime.
Of course HPD will pull out the famous Nazi German defense of “Vee ver juss following ordahs” but you are absolutely right to infer that the cops could have used a little common sense.
Hopefully this will get back to Washington and perhaps even to the Dept of Transportation where the leaders there will decide our podunk town does not deserve any more funding for the debacle choo choo train if they can’t even cut the tiniest bit of slack for such a petty offense!
There’s a difference between what Christopher Deedy was prosecuted for and what Jerome Adams is being prosecuted for. Deedy picked a fight and killed someone. Adams stood on a beach.
He stood on a beach while Black.
Exactly, and that’s something no one wants to talk about.
The theory that he was ticketed because Black would have more traction if not for the thousands of similarly stupid citations issued to non-Blacks.
Deedy stood up to a racist bully and defended himself appropriately when attacked. The prosecutor’s office was off-base then and is again now. They’ll lose this case too, for sure.
Fact remains the same: Prosecutorial overzealousness (out of their league?) and embarrassing results. Maybe Steve Alm can change things…
Thanks Ian, for the backstory the “newspaper” would never come out with. Can this be traced back to the Oz pulling the strings in this fiasco? Glad i voted like i did.
Interesting to read comments in other media posts that opin Adams should be treated no differently than the common persons cited. We are falling all over ourselves doing the pandemic shuffle. This country is a top-down embarrassment.
Well and what was the science behind these park closures?
Unfortunately, he’s not the only one who was cited for similar actions. I wonder how many of those who agreed to a $100 fine realize they have a criminal record.
In japan they have almost a 100% success rate in prosecutions. They only take cases they can win.
Also unfortunately they can hold you for months until you admit guilt. Thank goodness for The USA constitution.