THERE IS A GOD AFTER ALL Thursday, February 3, 2000
see www.honoluluadvertiser.com
Uyesugi ruled fit for trial: Judge to seal portions of experts’ report. Byran Uyesugi appeared in Circuit Court yesterday for only the second time in his case. He faces a May 15 trial in the Nov. 2 slayings of seven Xerox co-workers. Bruce Asato The Honolulu Advertiser By Ken Kobayashi
Advertiser Courts Writer: A state judge yesterday declared Byran Uyesugi mentally fit to stand trial May 15 on charges that he gunned down seven fellow Xerox workers in the state’s worst mass killing.
Circuit Court Judge Michael Town made the finding after Uyesugi’s lawyers agreed that the 40-year-old copy machine repairman is competent to stand trial based on the findings of a court-appointed panel of three mental health experts.
Town, however, granted a request by Uyesugi’s lawyers to keep confidential portions of the three experts’ reports dealing with Uyesugi’s alleged statements about the shooting. Honolulu media attorney Jeffrey Portnoy argued on behalf of The Honolulu Advertiser and television stations KHON-TV 2, KITV-4, KGMB 9 and KHNL News 8 that the three reports should be made public in their entirety.
Town said courts and court documents historically are open to the public but said he was reluctantly granting the defense’s request because the disclosure of the alleged statements would jeopardize Uyesugi’s rights to a fair trial.
Both Uyesugi’s lawyers and prosecutors refused to comment about what Uyesugi may have said. But it was clear from the judge’s ruling that some of the reports’ contents may be potentially explosive and harmful to the defense. Town said he read the reports carefully and concluded that there is no reasonable alternative to sealing parts of the documents. For now, I’m convinced this is the right thing to do, he said. The judge also denied a request by city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle, who wanted to disclose portions of the reports to the victims’ families to apprise them of the case. Defense lawyers and prosecutors are to meet today to propose to Judge Town which portions of the reports, estimated to total about eight or nine pages, should remain confidential. Town’s ruling on the fitness issue means that the criminal proceedings against Uyesugi, which were suspended pending the judge’s decision, can resume.
Uyesugi, who is being held without bail at Oahu Community Correctional Center, is charged with first-degree and second-degree murder for allegedly firing more than two dozen rounds from a 9mm Glock semiautomatic handgun on Nov. 2 at Xerox Hawaii’s Nimitz Highway building. The shooting left seven Xerox employees dead. Uyesugi appeared in court for only the second time yesterday in his case. He wore the olive green OCCC prison garb, leg shackles and slippers. He showed little emotion but nodded at the start of the proceeding when Rodney Ching, one of his lawyers, told him he would have to stand when the judge entered the courtroom. Another Uyesugi lawyer, Jerel Fonseca, later said he had not talked to his client to gauge his reaction to the judge’s ruling. Town appointed psychiatrist Leonard Jacobs and psychologists Thomas Cunningham and James Tom Greene to examine Uyesugi on two issues: whether he was mentally competent to stand trial and whether he was legally insane at the time of the shooting. The panel filed individual reports finding Uyesugi fit to stand trial in that he can assist in his defense and understand the criminal proceedings. Their recommendations on whether he was legally insane that he could not tell right from wrong or could not abide by the law also are contained in the reports. But those recommendations are not covered by Town’s order and apparently will be released.
Fonseca declined to say what the trio of experts recommended on the sanity question, but said the defense will be asserting at trial that Uyesugi should be acquitted by reason of insanity. Fonseca last week asked that the three reports be sealed in their entirety, but yesterday he made it clear that he was seeking to keep confidential only the portions related to Uyesugi’s alleged statements. He argued that their disclosure in a case that has been publicized around the world would compound the problem of getting an impartial jury. We’ve got to be able to minimize the effects of pretrial publicity, he told Town. Carlisle supported the request. He said disclosure would lead to a jury that would be less representative of the community because potential jurors who follow media reports and learn about the alleged statements would likely be disqualified from the panel. Media attorney Portnoy argued that the case has generated a tremendous amount of publicity, and the defense failed to establish how the disclosure of such statements would make it impossible to pick a fair jury. On the other hand, keeping those statements confidential would lead to suspicions about the process and a denial of the public’s right to know what’s going on, he told the judge. I’m disappointed, but not surprised, Portnoy said later. I don’t think there’s anything in the reports that anyone can legitimately argue would have jeopardized this defendant’s right to a fair trial. But he said neither the court nor the prosecution wants to potentially give the defense additional grounds for a possible appeal. It’s a perfectly understandable decision, he said. Carlisle said he would have preferred to be able to disclose to the victims’ families what is excluded from the reports but said he can live with the decision. Fonseca said he was pleased. We’re trying as much as possible to preserve Mr. Uyesugi’s right to a fair trial, he said.
FORD KANEHIRA
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Why? - Shooting In Paradis