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Kanahele switches attorneys

Associated Press
August 21, 1997


HONOLULU (AP) -- Hawaiian activist Dennis ``Bumpy'' Kanahele will be represented at his second federal court trial by attorney Michael Green.

Kanahele was defended by attorney Hayden Aluli in 1995. The first trial ended with a jury unable to reach a verdict on whether Kanahele harbored tax fugitive Nathan Brown and interfered in his arrest in 1994.

Kanahele, the leader of the self-proclaimed Nation of Hawaii, told U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor last Friday that he was trying to make financial arrangements to hire Green. Gillmor gave Kanahele until Wednesday.

Green said Wednesday that he probably won't use ``Hawaiian sovereignty-types of defenses'' in the trial that is set to begin Sept. 16.

``This to me is a factually simple case,'' he said. ``They charged criminal conduct. Our defense is that he never did'' engage in criminal conduct.

Green is a well-known attorney who has represented the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers. Aluli's client list includes teen-ager Gabriel Kealoha, who was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Honolulu police Sgt. Arthur Miller, who was off-duty at the time the two became embroiled in a traffic dispute.


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