President Donald Trump has nominated former state Attorney General Mark Bennett to the Hawaii seat of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Bennett served as attorney general for eight years under Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, from 2003 to 2011, and then joined the firm Starn O’Toole Marcus & Fisher, where he has practiced complex civil and appellate litigation and government relations.
Bennett also spent seven years as an assistant U.S. attorney for Hawaii, and spent a dozen years practicing at the Honolulu law firm of McCorriston Miller Mukai MacKinnon LLP.
Bennett also has been an adjunct professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law. He earned his law degree from Cornell Law School.
Bennett’s appointment won high praise from U.S. Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz, which could bode well for his chances for confirmation in the U.S. Senate.
“Attorney General Bennett has extensive experience practicing law in the public and private sectors in Hawaii and at the federal level,” Hirono said in a written statement. “Mark is a well-qualified nominee to serve on the 9th Circuit.”
Schatz said, “Mark Bennett has a long and distinguished career as a lawyer and public servant in Hawaii that makes him well-qualified to serve as a judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“With more than two decades of public service, Mark has a reputation as a highly competent, principled attorney — something I saw firsthand when he served as attorney general,” Schatz added. “I am confident that he will be a fair, dispassionate jurist who will carefully follow the rule of law while reflecting Hawaii’s values.”
MAUI
Lahaina man’s death marks 11th ocean-related fatality
A 38-year-old Lahaina man died Sunday afternoon near a spot known as Puka Maui, according to Maui officials.
Maui Fire Department rescue crews responded at 12:25 p.m. Sunday to a report that a man had drowned at the spot in the Kailua area of East Maui.
A helicopter spotted the male victim with five other people on a rocky point near the water’s edge, about a mile makai of Hana Highway, about 15 minutes later. Firefighters were lowered to the remote coastal location by helicopter.
Firefighters loaded the victim into a rescue basket and airlifted him to Emergency Medical Services crew standing by on Hana Highway at about 1:15 p.m. Paramedics evaluated the victim and pronounced him dead at the scene.
The man and friends had made the 60- to 90-minute hike down to the natural rock formation on the shoreline from the trailhead on Hana Highway, and entered the water to swim to the opposite side of the bay, when friends saw the victim floating unresponsively in the water. They pulled him onto a rocky point and began performing CPR, but it took at least an hour for someone from the group to reach Hana Highway to get cellphone reception and call 911 for help.
The incident was Maui County’s 11th ocean-related fatality this year.
HAWAII ISLAND
Man found in burning car ID’d as Kalapana resident
Hawaii island police have identified the victim of a suspected murder in the Orchidland subdivision as 67-year-old Douglas Vernon Don of Kalapana.
Don’s remains were retrieved from a burning vehicle found on a side road off 39th Avenue near Pohaku Drive on Christmas morning.
Investigators used DNA analysis to make the identification.
Anyone who might have information about this incident is asked to call the Police Department’s nonemergency line at 935-3311 or contact Detective Kayne Keli‘i at 961-2378 or Kayne.kelii@hawaiicounty.gov.
