Telescope foes accused of trying to sabotage case

Attorneys with the University of Hawaii at Hilo have accused Thirty Meter Telescope foes of waging a campaign to disrupt and delay the contested case hearing with the aim of having the case overturned on appeal.

Meanwhile, hearings officer Riki May Amano on Monday delayed today’s scheduled start of the hearing until Thursday to give the parties additional time to prepare.

In a filing submitted last week, the university said the Mauna Kea Hui petitioners, through their attorney, Richard Wurdeman, have been trying to “game the system” while “literally drowning the record with gratuitous charges of unfairness.”

“The obvious goal is to attempt to taint these proceedings, tarnish the reputation of the hearing officer, and prevent the Board of Land and Natural Resources and any higher courts on appeal from actually judging (the project’s) Conservation District Use application on its merits,” the university’s filing said.

But Wurdeman, contacted Monday, denied the allegations and described the university’s assertions as defamatory, unprofessional, lacking in civility, wild and unfounded.

“I’ve never seen attorneys engage in that kind of advocacy,” he said.

Wurdeman last week withdrew from the case due to scheduling conflicts after Amano declined to accommodate his request for a delay. He said he was seeking a postponement of only a few weeks.

The university’s attorneys are Ian Sandison, Tim Lui-Kwan and John Manaut of the law firm Carlsmith Ball of Honolulu.

In their filing, the university attorneys said Wurdeman’s move to walk away from the hearing a little over a week before its start was yet another example of the attorney trying to induce further delay and to “manufacture grounds for appeal.”

“It appears that Mr. Wurdeman’s last-minute withdrawal was contrived and intended to strong-arm the hearing officer into postponing the hearing by manufacturing procedural hardship and prejudice to his clients where it does not otherwise exist,” the filing said.

The document accuses Wurdeman and his clients of harassing and intimidating Amano through repeated motions to disqualify her.

The 19-page filing recounts the various motions intended to undermine the hearings officer, including one that accuses her of bias for having armed state Division of Conservation and Resource Enforcement officers attend each of the preliminary hearings.

“The university wholeheartedly objects to the repeated efforts of petitioners to harass the hearing officer by calling her ‘biased’ and ‘unfair’ for the patent and improper purpose of getting those words into the record as many times as they can,” the filing said.

What’s more, according to the document, Wurdeman “attempted to bully” Amano with accusations of bias when she would not give in to his demands for a longer postponement.

Coincidentally, the university Monday moved for a “short and reasonable postponement” to allow Amano more time to consider some of the pending motions before her.

Other than the two-day delay, the university’s request, as well as a number of other motions for postponement, were denied by Amano.

The former Hawaii island circuit judge explained that the space at the Grand Naniloa Hotel in Hilo was already booked, said Kealoha Pisciotta of the Mauna Kea Hui.

In her own filing in response to the university, Pisciotta denied any attempt by the petitioners to undermine or sabotage the proceeding.

She said the university’s document aims “unfounded, hostile, defamatory allegations lacking basic decorum and civility” primarily at Wurdeman, who was working the case pro bono.

“I resent their attacking him like that,” Pisciotta said. “He’s doing this out of the goodness of his heart.”

Wurdeman said he preferred not to try the case in the media. However, he added, he had a duty to make a record for the appellate court, and he tried his best to raise objections when he felt his clients were being treated unfairly. He said he stands by every motion he filed.

“The issues will be decided in appellate court one way or another,” he said.