Hawaii warden prevails in lawsuit alleging discrimination
HONOLULU (AP) — A federal jury found Tuesday that a warden at a jail in Hawaii did not subject female inmates to sexual humiliation and discrimination, and did not retaliate against a jail social worker who brought the suit.
After a week of deliberations, the jury voted unanimously in favor of defendants Neal Wagatsuma and the state of Hawaii.
Former jail social worker Carolyn Ritchie’s lawsuit accused Wagatsuma of forcing women Kauai Community Correctional Center to watch films depicting rape, and to divulge details about their sexual pasts while being filmed.
Wagatsuma testified during the trial that the violent sexual films were part of a program he created that includes what he calls “shame therapy.”
He said there have long been rumors he shows inmates pornography, but “I would never do that.”
The warden showed films such as “Finding Mr. Goodbar,” a 1970s drama in which the female protagonist is raped and murdered, court records showed.
Wagatsuma said he yells and uses profanity during the sessions. Words such as “whore” and “batuna,” a Hawaii slang term for a woman who trades sex for crystal meth, were used in appropriate contexts, he said.
Ritchie’s lawsuit said that woman had come to her to complain about the sessions. It also alleged the warden denied women the same work release opportunities as men.
Maui pot dispensary to feature public education center
WAILUKU, Maui (AP) — A Maui business that received a license to sell medical marijuana has revealed plans for its new dispensary, which will include space for a public cannabis education center.
Pono Life Sciences Maui LLC unveiled the Kahului dispensary to a group of politicians, community leaders and others Friday. The business is not yet selling medicinal marijuana because it hasn’t gotten permission from the state Department of Health to begin production, the Maui News reported (http://bit.ly/2hS39AH).
CEO Michael Takano said the dispensary will feature a public education and retail area that will serve as a waiting area for those who accompany medical marijuana card holders to the facility. A restricted section with a lobby and dispensary will be accessible only to patients.
“If you are the card holder and you are a cancer patient or have a chronic condition, then most likely you’ll be traveling with your caregiver or a family member,” Takano said. “Where do they go? The state law didn’t account for that, so we made the additional investment to have ancillary space for outside operators where we can truly drive a community solution.”
Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Racquel Bueno said patients will be advised on picking out the products best suitable to their needs.
“For patients that we’ve spoken with, the biggest issue is that they don’t know how to navigate their way from the very beginning,” Bueno said. “Does marijuana help them? How do you find somebody who will help them get a card? How do you get a card? All of those things are very difficult to navigate.”
Under the statewide license, the company doing business as Pono Life Maui can operate two production centers and two dispensaries. Takano said the company is eyeing locations for a second dispensary and plans for a second production center are in the works.
“We all need to get to first harvest and first sale and growth. Once we’re there, we’ll know a lot of the risk factors that are involved,” he said.
The company plans to employ about 30 workers once it has received the state’s approval to start production, but Takano wasn’t sure exactly when that would be.
“We’ve been ready for the most part right out of the gate,” he said. “We contracted this (building) last spring, and we’ve been under lease since July 12, so it’s been very expensive for us. We’ve spent a great deal of capital on infrastructure and planning.”
Pono Life Sciences is one of two Maui groups that have received medical marijuana dispensary licenses. Maui Grown Therapies announced its first dispensary location last week and will hold a series of open houses in the building starting in February.
Woman pleads not guilty in Maui cliff crash that killed twin
WAILUKU, Maui (AP) — A woman charged with killing her twin sister by driving their SUV off a Maui cliff has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Alexandria Duval, 38, entered the not guilty plea Monday in a Maui courtroom. She had waived extradition from New York, where she was arrested Nov. 11, and was brought back to the island on Friday.
Authorities say Duval was driving a Ford Explorer on May 29 with her sister, Anastasia, in the passenger seat when the SUV crashed into a rock wall and plunged about 200 feet. Authorities have described the incident as a hair-pulling fight over the steering wheel.
Anastasia Duval was killed and Alexandria was injured.
Deputy Public Defender Heather Brown represented Duval during Monday’s hearing, but she says the defendant plans to hire her own attorney.
A pretrial conference was set for Jan. 26. Duval is being held on $3 million bail, but a bail hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
The Duval sisters, born Alison and Ann Dadow in the Utica, New York, area, operated popular yoga studios in Palm Beach County, Florida, from 2008 to 2014 before they changed their names. They moved to Hawaii in December 2015 from Utah.
