It’s been 3-1/2 years since a dozen men wearing red shirts identifying themselves as federal marshals from the Kauai group known as the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi, stormed into the main office of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, assaulted at least two OHA employees and threatened others, and announced they were there to seize the agency’s assets and arrest “corrupt” trustees. There was a two-hour standoff before police finally gained control of the situation.
Now, after several delays, the trial of six men facing felony charges stemming from the January 17, 2019 incident is scheduled to get underway on September 19.
Five–Sadhu-Bhusana Bott, Jordan Faletogo, Ene Faletogo, also known as Ene Faletoga, Rheece Kahawai, and Peter Laban, also known as Peter Laman–
are each charged with two counts of kidnapping, a Class A felony, and a single count of 2nd degree assault, a Class C felony.
A sixth person, Remedio Dabaluz, is charged with 2nd degree asssault, also a Class C felony.
Under Hawaii law, Class A felonies have a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison if convicted, while Class C felonies carry a five year maximum.
At least two of the defendants appear likely to defend themselves by arguing that as federal marshals for the Sovereign Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi, they are beyond the jurisdiction of the state courts.
Earlier this summer, two defendants, Dabaluz and Jordan Faletogo, asked to dismiss their attorneys and represent themselves in the upcoming trial.
Emmanuel G. Guerrero, who had been representing Dabaluz, stated in a declaration filed in court that “from the inception, the attorney and client have had differing views as to the legal strategy to pursue, and whether the defenses are legally viable, and that the differences are irreconcilable.”
Debaluz’ request was approved by Circuit Court Judge Kevin T. Morikone. In an August 10 order, Morikone said he had advised Dabaluz of the dangers and disadvantages of representing himself, and also advised that “he cannot later claim that his self-representation was ineffective.” After determining Dabaluz was aware of the issues, Morikone granted his request to represent himself.
In a separate written declaration filed with the court, Dwight Lum, the attorney representing Jordan Faletogo, said he had a meeting with Faletogo on August 25 “in which it became apparent that we had divergent views of the legal strategy to pursue in regards to this case,” and that Faletogo contacted him the following day saying he wanted to represent himself.
Lum’s motion to withdraw and allow Faletogo to take over his own defense was filed last week and is pending.
It seems likely that both Dabaluz and Jordan Faletogo likely intend to argue the Hawaiian Kingdom Constitution, and international laws, protect officials of the Sovereign Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi, including its “federal marshalls,” from such charges. It sounds like a dead-end argument from a legal standpoint, but believers tend to disagree.
According to the indictment, all defendants except Dabaluz face the possiblity of an extended term of imprisonment if they are convicted and sentenced on two or more counts, thereby becoming “multiple offenders.” Ene Faletogo, according to the indictment, may also be subject to an extended term as a “persistent offender” because he was previously convicted of two or more felonies as an adult.
Indictment of six defendant… by Ian Lind
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Get it over with and make it clear: this ridiculous bullshit will not be tolerated. No circus, no plea deals, no probation, no second chances, no more nonsense. Heavy sentences and hefty fines. Enough.
Well another Court to set up. We have Drug Court and various Specialty Courts.
The Peoples Sovereign Court, for very Special People, that deserve the book
Thrown at them! Judge Woopner is no longer available, but perhaps Judge To’oto’o might want to carry the War Club. In Sovereign Polynesian Court.
Have they actually read the constitution of the monarchy? It was a monarchy, all power rested with the monarch. So. What monarch appointed them?
And the gentrification of Kaua’i and loss of Hawaiian lands will continue.
Yep. Gentrification and overdevelopment are big problems statewide, and making up fantasy kingdoms of backwoods meatheads and barging into government offices spouting nonsense won’t solve those problems or any others.
Is the fictional Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi supposed to be a federation, or do its marshals think “federal” means “national”?
And I forgot I already asked that three years ago.
How often I have wondered whatever happened with the case. It was very big news when it happened and then it seemed to disappear. Thank you, Mr. Lind, for bringing this story back and providing details.
Yes, I even live on Kauai and must say that curiosity has been creeping into my brain since it has been so quiet on the western front regarding the Marshall’s and Kingdumb leaders of atoo (bless you) and the offshoot groups who fell out of favor with Dwayne to create their own brand of fairytale groups complete with flags of unicorns or rasta colors… I kid you not! Having blocked the fakas on Fakebook helps me to maintain a fraction of sanity and certainty do appreciate Ian for consistently reporting the facts as he finds them, covered in batpoop or not!!
We certainly need to clean up the rash and RADICAL crimes against the people who for better or worse are duly elected officials who must make the best choices for our Hawai’ian people…
Why not also charge them with impersonating law enforcement officers and conspiracy? They went there planning to violently seize a government office under false law enforcement authority and then did so. And the cops stood around talking with them for how long before making arrests? A common liquor store dustup would have been handled much more vigorously. Prosecutors should absolutely throw the book at them and police should carefully review their response and make the results public. There has to be zero tolerance for this kind of thing. And why did the media just kind of shrug it off as more silly Hawaiian antics and never follow up? This was not a simple protest or symbolic civil disobedience. This was a violent takeover of a government office that caused serious injury.
Instead of locking up native Hawaiian true believers, I would rather see a series of live televised debates between UH law school professors (or retired judges) and Keanu Sai type legal activists. And I think PBS Hawaii should dedicate time and energy to exploring the topic of native Hawaiian land ownership and sovereignty misinformation that appears to be getting worse. And maybe it’s time for the Star-Advertiser to go in-depth.
Messianic “true believers” who storm government offices and assault people need to be locked up, period. Save the debate for rational minds.
@Seriously: I hear you and I feel you, but I believe incarceration has the potential to make things worse. As Ian’s diary entries have pointed out, certain groups have been pushing a false narrative that has radicalized segments of our island population.
I hear you too, but the simple truth is that some people are dangerous criminal thugs and racists who pay lip service to deluded notions of activism but have no real interest in anything but bullying others to obtain personal power and feed warped egos. I frankly don’t care if incarceration makes life much worse for them, because they bought their ticket and locking them up makes life much better for everyone else. Clutching pearls and making excuses for them is naive and endangers others. We’re not talking about MLK or Gandhi, and we’re certainly not talking about comparable societal injustices. Nowhere even close. These are devious scammers and violent criminals who should be treated as such by rational civil society for the good of all.
Agreed, zero tolerance.
But unless a defendant was armed with a firearm, impersonating a police office is only a misdemeanor and wouldn’t really add much to this case. Also, prosecuting that charge could be a little complicated because these clowns apparently believed they were law enforcement officers of their little kingdom and so didn’t intend to deceive anybody. They didn’t claim to be HPD.
Cops handled the situation correctly. They had to secure the scene, sort out multiple suspects and gather evidence and statements from multiple parties. In the end, nobody else was injured and nobody got away.
Now convict and lock up.
And there’s really no point in charging conspiracy, since they can’t be convicted of both conspiracy and the object of the conspiracy. So it’s better for them to be convicted of kidnapping than conspiracy to kidnap. A conspiracy charge would be appropriate if they were unsuccessful or didn’t go ahead with the other offense, or if the evidence to convict for that offense was weak. Here, the evidence seems rock solid. These dudes are going away.