Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 15, Number 2, 1 February 1998 — PERFECT TITLE: Lewis and Sai protest arrests [ARTICLE]

PERFECT TITLE: Lewis and Sai protest arrests

By Poula Durbin After an O 'ahu grand jury indicted Perfect Title president Donald Lewis and chief investigator David Keanu Sai, hoth charged with attemptedfirstdegree theft, OHA received via the internet a eommunieaūon dated Dec. 23 and signed "PTC Staff:" The message announced to the Hawaiian community that Lewis had, under protest , turned himselfin to the Attorney General's office . Lewis also sent a letter to President Clinton, dated Dec. 22, protesting the charges: As a native subject of the Hawaiian Kingdom, I do hereby solemnly protest against any and all acts done against myself by

certain citizens of the United States claiming to have authority under the guise of a United States government "state" within the dominion and sovereignty of the Hawaiian Islands, a elaim whieh stands in violation of treaties entered into between our two nations, international law and my civil rights. "The court whieh issued the warrant for my arrest, No. 973082, has no legal basis and is not a competent tribunal within the meaning of Article VII, Treaty of 1850, United States Statutes at Large, 43rd congress, 1873-1875, p. 408, to wit: "No arbitrary search of, or visit to their houses and no arbitrary examination or inspection whatever of the books, papers or accounts of their trade, shall be made; but such measures shall be executed only in conformity

with the legal sentence of a eompetent tribunal; and eaeh of the two contracting parties engages

that the citizens or subjects of the other residing in their respective states, shall enjoy their prop-

erty and personal security, in as full and ample manner as their own citizens or subjects, but subject always to the laws and statutes of the two countries respectively." Those American citizens acting against my person have full knowledge of this matter and are in violation of this law and will be held accountable for their actions by a competent tribunal under the laws of the Hawaiian Kingdom. "Now to avoid any harm eoming to my family, friends and fellow countrymen of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the unlawful serving of the above mentioned warrant. I do this under protest and impelled by said threat of harm, yield my person to the government of the purported state of Hawai'i, until such time as you shall act upon the petition for a writ of mandamus, under docket

No. 97-969 in the United States Supreme Court, and undo the unlawful actions of its govemment and citizens within the Hawaiian Kingdom." The Perfect Title Company staff also sent a similar message on Keanu Sai and he wrote an identical letter to President Clinton. In eonneeīion with a lawsuit Sai brought in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported on Jan. 13 that Clinton had waived his right to respond whieh could have resulted in the dismissal of Sai's petition requesting the president be compelled to honor the 1850 treaty between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawai'i. According to the newspaper, law professor Jon Van Dyk said the U.S. Supreme Court will now have to evaluate the issue. ■

Lewis and Sai, under protest, turned themselves in to the Attorney General's office .