Senate Standing Committee on Judiciary

Alright. Welcome, everyone, to the Judiciary Committee for the decision making only on the governor's message 801 submitting for consideration and confirmation as chief justice of the Hawaii State Supreme Court, gubernatorial appointee Vladimir Pete Evans for a term to expire in ten years. For me, it's it's a sad day for me personally. I look out in the audience and I see my political friends and allies of the last twenty years, and I see people I respect and whose opinions matter to me.

This is my seventieth judicial confirmation since I became JDC Chair eight years ago.

I supported the previous 69. This is the first time where I felt like I wasn't getting all the information needed to make my decision from the paperwork or the nominee themselves. Too many important facts came to my attention through the press. For these reasons for those reasons, I reluctantly recommend that we not consent to the nomination. Questions, comments, or concerns?

Chair.

Senator Chang.

Thank you. In support of the confirmation. Mister Chair, I'm proud to support the confirmation of justice Devons to be CJ. He's a lifelong district of the 9th lifelong resident of the 9th District and a proud graduate of Kalani High School.

He's a family man with three daughters and a record of mentoring people in the bar, volunteer service to the bar association, to the state as a land use commissioner, among others, to the community as a softball coach, among others, as has been recognized by people like chief justice Reichenwald.

He was, I thought, remarkably open about potentially negative information. He included quite a lot of detail about the complaints made up against him by in the office of disciplinary counsel. And I agree that it was an unfortunate mistake for him to not list his directorships and packs in his past applications, including for PRP, but also for Showpo, I believe, in the past.

This year, he did mention that participation in his application materials, and he pointed that he step pointed out that he stepped down before applying, which he again mentioned in the hearing. And also in the hearing, he took responsibility for that mistake, and he indeed apologized for it to us.

And I accept that apology. In the future, I suggest that the JDC questionnaire can specifically ask about political activities or PAC memberships since the current questions, I think, we have to admit do leave a little bit of room for interpretation there. Rather than speculating about hypotheticals, I wanted to look at his record, and he has one now that he's been on the court for two years.

Not one piece of testimony suggested that the opinions and decisions that he rendered in his service on the court were not independent or impartial. Indeed, quite the opposite.

He's affirmatively demonstrated his independence and impartiality from his major client in private practice, the police officers union, as noted in testimony from professor Kenneth Lawson. His vote to require body cams was not a traditional pro law enforcement vote, but it was a vote for transparency and to set clear ground rules for both law enforcement and defendants in a fair manner. Furthermore, he'll be the head of the judicial branch of government if confirmed, and I'm confident that he can hit the ground running in that capacity.

In the hearing, he identified many of the same issues that his predecessors have been working on such as the security of the facilities of the judicial branch. And that's why, I'm confident that he'll be able to discharge the duties of the chief justice.

So I will be voting to advise and consent to his nomination. Thank you, Chair.

Understood. Other questions or comments? Senator San Buenaventura.

Thank you very much. I'm gonna vote to oppose. And I have I can forgive justice Devons in his role as an attorney because we have had, as an attorney, I've had to take a number of court appointed cases where we have had to represent odious clients. However, he has chosen to join a three director pack who had a history, and he knew they had a history of negative campaigning. It is difficult enough for us as politicians to run clean campaigns.

It is so much more difficult when having to fight multimillions of dollars of negative publicity, which has a dual effect of negativing that particular campaign, but also impliedly impliedly telling all of us litigators I mean, not litigators, legislators that if we do not toe the line, this is the kind of publicity we will be facing. That kind of intense pressure, I'm super glad that it was strong women who've had to, endure that as well as a strong man. I mean, former governor Cayetano.

But he knew that, and he was a principal. He wasn't just an attorney.

He was a principal, one of three. The fact that I can't excuse that kind of conduct. Not when we are talking about a major branch of the, the government. He is going to be chief justice. He is already a justice.

I love the fact that he is a labor attorney. That's the reason why we confirmed him the first time as a regular justice. But this time, he is going to be chief justice in charge of the a third branch of our government. And with that kind of undue potentially undue influence, when he, as a regular citizen, chose to be part of a pack with such a negative character, not as attorney. He did it freely.

He wasn't paid. I just can't excuse that. And for that reasons, I'm gonna be voting against.

Alright. Thank you. Other comments or questions? Senator Awa.

Just wanna come to the rescue of my colleague from Hawaii Kai who's probably gonna be in the comments of civil beat saying, look, he's corrupt letting this guy through.

I've seen all the comments. But, like him, we are in support. In four years on this Judiciary Committee, this criticism aside, I haven't seen there's only been one other person who I think could do the job that I would trust doing the job. We grow up, and the one thing that we learn, or us lay people, is when it comes to courts, you wanna be judged by your peers.

And this guy went from to public school to becoming a cop and everything in between to now where he's at today.

And me, we could turn the the spotlight on any one of us and people could nitpick us to death and get us out of here as senators. But but this guy, you know, I I applaud you for taking the heat. Do support you and and for all the civil beat, you know, readers who's gonna see this and think, oh, it's just the Senate doing their thing again.

You know, At the end of the day, we believe this candidate, this nominee is the best, one for the people of Hawaii. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions or concerns? Senator Gabbard, go ahead.

Yes. Based on the strong testimony and support from chief justice, Rectinwald, who I respect very much, and others in the legal community, I'm gonna be voting up on, justice Devin's and plus the overwhelming amount of support received as far as the testimonies. And, also, based on the success of his first two years as a justice, I think he's proven himself to be competent, honest, and qualified. So I'll be voting up on it.

Okay. Since we know what how everybody's going to vote, which I didn't know beforehand, I will go ahead and make the the recommendation in the positive. So the recommendation is to consent, and then I will vote no. And I guess.

Now I'll vote no. Okay.

So to consent to the nomination of Vladimir Pete Evans for the Supreme Court, Vice Chair.

K. On GM 801. [Roll Call] The measure is adopted.

K. Thank you very much. We are adjourned. Just a reminder to JDC Members, we do have a an actual hearing in twelve minutes, 10:20. Thank you all for being here.

We're adjourned.

Alright. Thank welcome everyone to the 10:20 agenda for the Judiciary Committee. We have one house Concurrent Resolution on this agenda, which is House HDR 32. This request the governor's senior adviser for mental health and the justice system to formulate a plan to create places of shelter for persons under civil commitment and for persons who have been recently released from the Hawaii State Hospital and are at risk of recidivism.

First up on HDR 32 is Michael Champion for the office of governor. Morning. You're up if you want.

Yes. Oh, is this team only? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Yeah.

You're right. I'm not used to having a rezos as. No, that's fine.

So I think we're with with doctor Champion's concerns noted, I think we're just gonna leave it alone and pass it as is if that's acceptable with everyone. Fine. Okay. So recommendations to pass HDR 32 as is. Questions or concerns?

If not, Vice Chair.

[Roll Call] Measure's adopted.

Alright. Thanks very much. We're adjourned. Thanks for being here.