Thursday, October 18, 2012
Judge allows camera to roll at activist trial
by Larry Geller
Making no reference to the ACLU amicus curiae brief filed just days ago, Honolulu District Court Judge Dean Ochiai allowed one camera to roll at the trial of Laulani Teale. He incidentally mentioned that Star-Advertiser reporter Ken Kobayashi may use an audio recorder.
The Hawaii Video Hui brought and used the same ‘Olelo camera that was seemingly invisible to Judge Paula Devens-Matayoshi when she continued the Teale trial in September after saying, “The court does not see that there is a television camera” in the courtroom.
(For a discussion of the media issue, a summary of the case and a copy of the amicus brief, see: Media access and right to protest at issue in linked trials today in District Court in Honolulu, 10/17/2012.)
The Teale case was continued until November 5 after beginning late in the day. The city prosecutor offered his first witness, a police officer who gave his account of events leading to Teale’s arrest on May 1. Teale had begun to question the officer when the court recessed the trial for the day.
A side effect of Judge Devens-Matayoshi’s earlier refusal to allow videotaping of the trial was some publicity for the Guerrilla Video Hui, the organization that filed the form requesting permission to cover the trial. Star-Advertiser reporter Ken Kobayashi’s story Judge allows trial video coverage by the Hawaii Guerrilla Video Hui (Star-Advertiser p. B4, 10/18/2012) appeared in today’s paper. The Video Hui is now on the map.
If video is posted or made available, we will cover it at Disappeared News.
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