Senate Standing Committee on Judiciary

Okay. Welcome to the Judiciary Committee this Tuesday morning. We're not in our usual room, we're in 225, which is first agenda, the 10 o' clock agenda. We have two governor's message and a judiciary communication to vote on for judges.

The first one is GM 767 submitting for consideration and confirmation as Circuit Court judge of the Circuit Court of the Third Circuit, which is Hawaii county for those who don't know. Gubernatorial appointee Kalanoe A.D. Jackson for a term to expire in 10 years. Okay, members, the recommendation on this is to consent. Any questions or concerns if not.

Senator Chang, thanks for taking the vote.

Chair's recommendation For Governor's message 767 is to consent. [roll call]. The recommendation adopted.

Okay, thank you. Congratulations. Next up is Judicial Communication 28. This is submitting for consideration confirmation the District Family Court of the Second Circuit, which is Maui County Judicial appointee Sonia H. Toma for a term to expire in six years. Recommendation is to consent with. Let me give a little explanation.

There were some concerns raised about this nominee or this appointee. We did. Well, I didn't. My staff went back and dug up the court records and we reviewed them and we couldn't find anything that would be considered problematic in any way.

It would appear to us that she behaved in a way, a manner that any competent attorney would have behaved in that situation. So recommendation is to consent. Questions or concerns? If not, Senator Chang.

Chief's recommendation For judiciary communication 28 is to consent. [roll call]. The recommendation is adopted.

Okay, thank you. We'll recess for a couple of minutes. Recess.

Welcome back to the Judiciary Committee. We do have one other hearing item which is House Concurrent Resolution- Resolution 55 requesting the Judiciary to convene a working group to study how effective existing laws on domestic violence, temporary restraining orders, protective orders and harassment by stalking or preventing continued abuse and harassment.

We have a two minute time limit on testimony. And first up for HCR 55 is Diane Medeiros for the Judiciary. Oh, with comments. Next to Darsha Forster for office Public Defender. Good morning.

Good morning. Aloha. I'll be fast. So basically we're asking if we can our office can please be included and we're also asking that. Also included is a representative from Hactel, which is the Hawaii Criminal Lawyers Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. That way there's representation for defendants.

I think we're going to have a real balanced discussion about prevention should be at the table. I think we have a lot of good insight and we can work with others. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Next is Yasmin Cheney or Cheney for Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women. In support, Melanie Rollnick, maybe on Zoom. Yes, go ahead. Good morning.

Hi, Aloha. And good morning. My name is Melody Rolnick and I'm a mother, a domestic violence survivor, and I've been navigating the court system here in Hawaii pro se for nearly four years. I support this resolution because the current protective orders often fail to protect survivors. And in some cases like mine, they actually make things worse.

After I was granted sole physical custody of my 8 month old breastfeeding baby, my abuser filed a restraining order against me, falsely claiming I was kidnapping my child. And without verifying the facts, officers removed the baby based on that lie. And it wasn't a misunderstanding. It was actually strategic retaliation.

Even before I filed for protection, attorney Elizabeth Cucia on the island of Maui was already advising my abuser on how to discredit me. I have text messages for her instructing him to call me unstable and ensure that that narrative made it into a police report before I was even involved in court.

Later on December 14th, 2021 Attorney Cucia submitted a sworn declaration under penalty of perjury claiming she had a video of me doing illegal things while holding my baby. That video never existed and it was an absolute fabricated came meant to damage my credibility.

When you have unethical attorneys like Elizabeth Cuchia on the island of Maui who lie under the penalty of perjury and weaponize the legal system to silence and discredit domestic violence violent survivors, it creates lasting harm.

Despite having evidence and receipts, every time I try to present them in court, attorney Elizabeth Cucia objects to them and the judge excludes them. These lies shape the outcome, not facts. Even this morning, I received more hostile communication from Elizabeth Cucia.

And while women helping women help me get a protective order, they didn't help me access a lawyer to actually litigate this protective order. So for four years, I've been struggling and fighting alone. The restraining order escalated the abuse and survivors need more than just a piece of paper. We need protection and legal support and accountability for abusers.

So please pass this resolution. And if passed, please contact me to be part of the conversation @melodyrolnickmail.com thank you.

Thank you for your testimony. Next up is Kalea Correa in support, Frank Schultz in support, Alan Cardenas Jr. In support. That's everybody who signed up on HCR 55. Would anyone else like to testify? Yes, please go forward. Good morning.

Good morning, chair, committee members, I'm Angie Mercado, the Executive Director of the Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. We represent the member program statewide and I too will keep it brief. We definitely are in support of having public defenders on this working group.

We do believe that we needed to have all voices involved in this if we're really going to do this and not just replicate prior years work without any outcomes.

But I will point out that we actually do need funding for this and I know that's hard to do that in a resolution, but that definitely needs to be funding somehow at least to the judiciary to be able to facilitate these working groups and actually have some semblance of an outcome that we, that the community expects us to have.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Thank you for hearing this measure.

Thank you. Anyone else, Would anyone, would anyone else like to testify in HCR 55? Good morning. Go ahead.

Aloha. Chair Rhoads and the rest of the Senate Committee of Judiciary. Angela Melody Young testifying on behalf of CARES. And so this topic is interesting because in China it's okay to hit people. So the culture is different and harassment can be discipline in other countries when it happens between family members.

And I work in safety coordination with Neighborhood Security Watch so I had to learn about these procedures. It is difficult, I think to work with what's anticipated in this workbook because it can involve invasion of privacy. So that should be a research focus, right?

Invasion of privacy, injured parties providing information and then invasion of privacy of private medical records and private court proceedings to be used for providing advice to public policy. From what I've witnessed in the court systems and the judiciary procedures, this can be a lot more of a sensitive process for medical records and just court records.

So what's provided within this resolution is very basic. It's a very basic overview and yet I think it can go into more focused research. For example, further protection for injured parties in the work group during ongoing deliberations for proposed legislations, protective measures for family Members, invasion of privacy issues and then also the work group intends to benefit.

And yet how will the injured parties benefit? It seems like that the work group will benefit more and there is no protective measures for injured parties because the work group should come up with a plan to prevent harassment, intimidation, discrimination and invasion of privacy for injured parties and family members.

So also it should research things that was deliberated in 2023, coercive control and litigation where people file excessive complaints using protective orders to abuse the system. Thank you so much.

Would anyone else like to testify in HC R55, either here or on Zoom? Okay. Seeing none. Members, questions? I don't have any questions either. If you guys are ready to go. Go ahead and vote. Okay. My recommendation is to pass with some amendments.

We'll accept the public defender's request to have a public defender and someone from the Hawaii Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on the working group will accept the judiciary's request to have authority to add other working group participants. And there'll be some texts, including the Hawaii Commission on the Status of Women's Removing redundant language Tech questions or concerns. If not Senator Chang for the vote.

Chairs recommendation for HCR 55 is to pass with amendments. [roll call]. The recommendation is adopted.

Great. Thank you very much, members. And we are adjourned.