Category Archives: Crime

Bermudez dumps another attorney

Leave a reply

Screenshot

Lance Bermudez was the last of about 18 associates of the late racketeering boss, Michael J. Miske, Jr., to be sentenced. On July 14, Judge Derrick Watson sentenced him to 30 years (360 months) for drug trafficking, with lesser sentences for racketeering and assault to run concurrently to the drug term. It was the longest prison sentence among that 18 or so of Miske’s co-defendants and other associates who pleaded guilty.

He is currently serving his sentence at a federal facility in North Carolina.

Within days of his sentencing, Bermudez filed a notice that he would be appealing to the 9th Circuit Court. At the same time, his attorney, Myles Breiner, filed a motion asking to withdraw from the case. In a declaration filed in court, Breiner said Bermudez wanted a court-appointed attorney to take over. Breiner also said there could be a conflict of interest if Bermudez were to appeal based on a claim of “ineffective counsel.”

A California-based attorney, DeAnna Dotson, was appointed to replace Breiner on August 14.

On the same day, Dotson mailed Bermudez a letter informing him of her appointment to handle his appeal. She also telephoned and was able to speak with him.

In a declaration filed in court this week, Dotson said Bermudez “refused to receive the letter I had mailed to him and it was returned to me unopened marked ‘Inmate refused to Legal Mail.’”

“My client signed a Plea Agreement which waived his right to a direct appeal,” Dotson continued. However, if the government breached that agreement I would be able to file a direct appeal on his behalf. I received his documents and reviewed all of them to see if there was a breach. I could not find any such breach by the government.”

“My client does not want to have any contact with me, either by mail or telephone,” Dotson wrote.

As a result, she has also asked to withdraw from the case. Before withdrawing, however, Dotson reported spending time trying to arrange for Bermudez to be transferred to a prison in Beaumont, Texas, where he wants to be held because he has family in the area.

It is unclear at this point whether another Bermudez will be offered another court-appointed attorney or whether his failure to cooperate will end his appeal.

Meanwhile, appeals filed on behalf of John Stancil and Norman Akau are on hold due to the ongoing government shutdown.

Deadlines for filing opening briefs in their appeals, and other cases being handled by court-appointed attorneys, have been vacated by order of Mary Murguia, chief judge of the 9th Circuit. Those deadlines will not be reset until a funding bill is passed and funds are available to pay the attorneys.

Both men have filed notices of appeal. Stancil’s opening brief was due last week, while Akau’s would have been due next week. Both are now in legal limbo pending the end of the shutdown.

Also see:

The “Hammah” falls, iLind.net, September 8, 2022.

Seven years since the fatal shooting at Ala Moana Center, iLind.net,

What’s Next for “Hammah”? Lance Bermudez, key Miske associate, to be sentenced, iLind.net, October 12, 2025.

The “Hammah” and his attorney get hammered as the Miske Enterprise case winds down, iLind.net, October 16, 2025

Clergy members describe assaults by ICE agents at Illinois facility

Leave a reply

We were singing old protest hymns like “We shall not be moved.” We eventually changed it to “Even if they tear gas us, we shall not be moved.” We also sang “We shall not be moved,” in Spanish. This song is about standing up for justice in a metaphorical sense. We were not literally blocking anything and no one ever asked us to move. Nonetheless, we were continuously tear-gassed and had pepper balls launched at us.
The Rev. Dr. Beth Johnson
Minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Hinsdale

Federal court records provide a continuing flow of first-hand unfiltered information about the attacks on First Amendment rights by ICE agents. The documents below were filed in against the federal government by a group of reporters, journalism organization, and other who say they witnessed numerous incidents of escalating violence by federal agents in response to demonstrations outside the ICE detention center in Broadview, Illinois, twelve miles from downtown Chicago.

According to Politico:

The plaintiffs are urging the court to protect the First Amendment rights of protesters to peacefully demonstrate around the facility and of journalists to “observe, record, and report on the federal agents’ activities and the public’s demonstrations against them.”

The suit — which was filed by the newsroom Block Club Chicago, the Chicago Headline Club, local labor unions representing Chicago-area journalists and a group of individual journalist and protesters — lists specific incidents in which they say agents targeted the press, including instances where they allege six journalists were hit with either pepper balls or tear gas despite wearing visible press credentials.

They also list eight examples of protesters and residents who they said were harmed or injured by ICE officers’ “violent presence” — including a minister for a local Presbyterian Church who allegedly was struck by the pepper balls and sprayed with tear gas while trying to offer prayers to the crowd.

The 52-page complaint can be read for free online.

Among the exhibits filed in court are several declarations by members of the clergy representing different religious denominations which describe what they witnesses and, in some cases, assaults they suffered at the hands of armed federal agents.

I’ve combined several of these, which are posted below.

While relatively rare, right-wing terrorism far exceeds that from the left, study finds

12 Replies

A recent report on political violence by the Cato Institute, a non-partisan Libertarian-based think tank, examined the data on cases of murder in politically motivated terror attacks in the U.S. over the 50 years between 1975 and 2025.

The findings may be surprising to some in light of prevailing right-wing narrative in this country.

Overall, the Cato report found that political murder is rare in the U.S.

A total of 3,597 people have been murdered in politically motivated terrorist attacks in the United States from January 1, 1975, through September 10, 2025. Murders committed in terrorist attacks account for about 0.35 percent of all murders since 1975.

Most victims of politically-motivated murders during the period (87%) died in the 9-11 attacks, which skews the data.
To avoid this, the report then excludes the 9-11 attacks, but retains all other terrorist attacks motivated by Islamic ideology, as well as other ideologies.

According to the data, right-wingers accounted for for 391 murders over the years, more than twice the number killed by those motivated by Islamic and left-wing ideologies combined.

“The definition here of right-wing terrorists includes those motivated by white supremacy, anti-abortion beliefs, involuntary celibacy (incels), and other right-wing ideologies,” according to the report.

By comparison, left-wing terrorists murdered 65 people during the same period. These include murders motivated by black nationalism, anti-police sentiment, communism, socialism, animal rights, environmentalism, anti-white ideologies, and other left-wing ideologies.

Screenshot

The study then focused on only those incidents since 2020. The overall changes a bit, but cases right-wing political murder still outnumber those motivated by Islamist and leftist ideologies combined.

Screenshot

You can read the Cato Institute report here.

The report’s methodology and data sources are discussed at length in a separate post.

Scammer convicted in federal tax refund fraud was part of earlier Hawaiian sovereignty scam

2 Replies

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii announced Friday that four defendants were convicted for their parts in a complex tax refund fraud scheme that falsely obtained over $1 million in fraudulent federal tax refunds.

From a news release:

HONOLULU – A federal jury convicted four individuals from Hawaii this week for their roles in a tax refund fraud scheme.

The following is according to court documents and evidence presented at trial: from at least January 2015 through September 2018, Rosemarie Lastimado-Dradi, Marciaminajuanequita Dumlao, Elvah Miranda, and Daniel Miranda conspired to defraud the United States. As part of their scheme, the conspirators filed fraudulent individual tax returns and other tax documents that reported false withholdings from mortgage lenders and then claimed substantial refunds from the IRS. After processing the false returns, the IRS issued refunds totaling over $1 million.

To prevent the IRS from recovering the fraudulently obtained refunds, the conspirators created trusts, opened new bank accounts in the names of business entities and the trusts, and transferred the proceeds between the accounts to conceal them from the government. In addition, Lastimado-Dradi, Dumlao, and Elvah Miranda laundered the fraudulently obtained refunds through a series of bank transactions. Dumlao and Daniel Miranda also each filed for bankruptcy and made false statements under oath in relation to their respective bankruptcy proceedings.

All the defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the United States. In addition, the jury found Lastimado-Dradi, Dumlao, and Elvah Miranda guilty of money laundering. Daniel Miranda and Dumlao were found guilty of making false statements under oath in a bankruptcy proceeding. Finally, Elvah Miranda was also found guilty of filing a false tax return, and Lastimado-Dradi was found guilty of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns. Dumlao was acquitted of filing a false tax return and four money laundering counts. Daniel Miranda was acquitted on one count of filing a false return.

I flagged the original indictment because one of the defendants, Rose Dradi, was also part of a fraudulent foreclosure relief scheme involving David Keanu Sai, a prominent proponent of the idea that the Hawaii Kingdom was never extinguished and now exists as an occupied territory, and Dexter Kaiama, a former Hawaiian attorney who tried to use Sai’s argument as a defense in court cases.

“Sai, who claims to be an expert on sovereignty issues, maintains that the continued existence of the Kingdom of Hawaii means that the State of Hawaii does not exist,” attorneys for the state’s Office of Consumer Protection argued in a 2018 lawsuit. “According to Sai, there are no state laws, and there are no state courts. Sai claims to know all of this first-hand because Sai claims to be an acting minister/diplomat for the Kingdom, and Kaiama is supposedly the Kingdom’s acting attorney general.”

I wrote about the scam in a 2019 post after OCP challenged a foreclosure case in which the homeowners used documents prepared by Sai and Kaiama in an attempt to defeat the lender’s foreclosure. According to OCP, Dradi identified and solicited potential “clients,” and then managed their communication with Sai and Kaiama.

Sai, the agency alleges, has a standard written contract that clients are asked to sign which requires them to pay a fee before services can be provided. Dradi often serves as Sai’s assistant, soliciting clients, obtaining payment, and coordinating with them in advance of court appearances, the agency says. She has often been the “primary point of contact between consumers and Sai.”

Once fees are collected, Sai then allegedly provides a written answer to the foreclosure lawsuit or a “motion to dismiss” that contests the court’s jurisdiction based on his theory that all U.S. or Hawaii law is unenforceable here because Hawaii remains an independent state. The motion is provided in a standard format which the property owners are advised to sign and file in court “pro se,” without the benefit of an attorney.

The agency alleges this scheme “in which Sai’s supposed expertise on Hawaiian sovereignty issues is packaged as part of a motion to dismiss, has been shown to be of no benefit….No judge presiding over a foreclosure case has yet to be convinced that the case must be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction based upon the continued existence of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and yet Sai keeps offering his services and illegally collecting his fees in advance.”

And when the sovereignty argument fails in court, as it consistently has, the agency says the home owners have incurred additional costs and delays, and as a result “have essentially squandered any meaningful chance they had to save their property….”

The Office of Consumer Protection referred the case for possible criminal prosecution in 2019. Hawaii News Now reported at the time that Sai had taken nearly $8,000 in fees from homeowners facing foreclosure who believed Sai’s assistance would save their homes.

“Sai’s conduct constitutes a felony and Sai’s criminal wrongdoing has been referred to the proper criminal authorities for investigation,” OCP attorney James Evers said in a court filing.

No criminal charges were filed in response to the referral, and neither Sai nor Kaiama was tied to Dradi’s larger tax refund scam.

In June 2020, attorney Kaiama settled a civil lawsuit brought by the Consumer Protector by agreeing to be permanently barred from providing “legal services or any other assistance” to any homeowner whose property is facing actual or threatened foreclosure.

Two years later, in December 2022, Kaiama abruptly surrendered his law license after refusing to cooperate with an investigation by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, and refused to respond to an order of the Hawaii Supreme Court to show cause why he should not be immediately suspended. Several weeks later, the court made the suspension official, precluding Kaiama from reactivating his law license absent approval from the disciplinary counsel.