Honolulu Star-Bulletin from Honolulu, Hawaii • 3

Schutter Founda tion Raps Police, Prosecutor cluded Stevens. Schutter has since At Schutter's request, the conviction waa overturned last month by Circuit Judge Harold Shintaku. Shintaku, who was criticized harshly for his decision, is recovering from injuries he received on Oct. 7, the day after issuing the order acquitting Stevens. The newsletter Keller wrote was approved by a 10-member foundation board of directors, one of which is Schutter.

Keller acknowledged yesterday that contributions to the foundation have seriously lagged in recent weeks because of Schutter's involvement in the Stevens case. Keller, however, said that Schutter, prior to announcing formation of the foundation, had committed himself to defending four persons accused of violent crimes. They in about criminal case attrition and "washout" rates is part of an effort "to try to make this office look bad." He defended the methods employed by his office, saying "we're exercising our discretion (on whether to prosecute or drop a case) sponsibly." Without mentioning the Stevens case by name, Keller in the newsletter wrote instead of criticizing judges, public attention instead should be directed at finding "innovative ways" to cut the criminal case attrition at both the police and prosecutor levels, Keller said. He cites a variety of techniques employed by the police and prosecutors, techniques which he says result in fewer than one out of every three suspects arrested for felonies ever By Jim McCoy Star -Bulletin Writer Public criticism of judges is "misdirected" and efforts to improve the criminal justice system should focus on improving the police and prosecutor's office, the Schutter Foundation, a group formed by Honolulu attorney David C. Schutter, its first newsletter.

In spite of a 94 percent conviction rate boasted by the city prosecutor, the foundation says if you are a vie-tim of a serious crime in there, is only a four percent chance that police will catch a suspect and the city prosecutor will take him to court. and obtain a conviction. The Schutter Foundation, a nonprofit group formed in July with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin Tuesday, I I a Hawaii seeing the inside of a courtroom. "Any serious assessment of the crime problem must start with the stark realization that most criminals aren't arrested in the first he wrote. "By their own accounting," the police last year arrested suspects in only 14 percent of the major felony cases reported to them." REFERRING TO the 94 percent conviction rate the prosecutor's of- fice said it achieved during the first" six months of this year, Keller said the prosecutor arrives "at that high a conviction rate by the way he counts cases." The prosecutor's office arrives.

tA this percentage by viewing the out---come of all cases that either go to trial or result in guilty pleas. A "more valid way" to keep track of the conviction rate is to count what happens to individual suspects, a method employed by the Hawaii. Criminal Justice Information Data Center, he said. Using this process, the prosecutor's office shows a 71 percent conviction rate. But Keller, says even those figures don't count those suspects arrested by the police who are later released and never, in- dieted.

This is the area where deputy' prosecutors make rarely-publicized decisions not to prosecute a case. Keller said. "The prosecutor's office has this discretion and exercises it independently of both the victim and the police regardless of whether probable" cause the much lower standard required by law to start the court process can be met. "In other words, the prosecutor's" office will go to trial only on behalf of a small percentage of victims whose cases meet questionably high case acceptance standards." If one was to compare the number of arrests to the number of convie- tions, the conviction rate would stand at 28 percent, Keller Since only a small percentage Of criminals are arrested in the first place, Keller said one of every 25 victims of serious crime sees a person convicted in court. "That's a four percent satisfaction rate." Harvest Resumed HILO Big Island police resumed operation Green Harvest confiscating nearly 5 tons of growing marijuana.

Police reported they seized 9,479 pounds of marijuana in both East and West Hawaii areas. The marijuana was valued at about $1 million, according to police. isillS Sifc. fiplffll IWsilpi High Court Questions a Steve ns-C a se Role y. 1 The Hawaii Supreme Court questions, whether it has jurisdiction to consider a request by the city prosecutor's office to overturn a ruling by Circuit Judge Harold Shintaku in the Charles Stevens murder case.

In an order signed yesterday by Chief Justice William S. Richardson, the high court asked Stevens' attorney to prepare a legal memo on the issue of whether the court can consider the prosecutor's request in light of Shintaku's written order acquitting Stevens of two murder charges. David C. Schutter, who represented Stevens, said he intends to file a memo in which he will contend that the court does not have the legal authority to hear the case. Last week, the prosecutor's office filed a request with the high court asking it to overturn Shintaku's decision which set aside a jury verdict A CLOSE LOOK Sara Awakuni carefully examines a porcelain piece created by her mother, Hanae, at me Hawaii Craftsmen '81 art exhibit at the Amfac Plaza Gallery yesterday.

The art show will continue through Nov. 13. Star-Bulletin Photo by Dennis Oda. Cargo Defendant Called a 'Believer purpose of reforming the criminal justice system, said that public attention should be focused on the inner workings of the police department and prosecutor's office. "To point fingers at judges is frustration misdirected because the courthouse is only the bottom end of badly leaking sieve we call the criminal justice system," foundation executive director Mike Keller wrote in the newsletter, sent out to 10,000 persons as part of a major fund-raising effort.

THE FOUNDATION was set up in July by Schutter, who has since been become embroiled in a stormy controversy as a result of his representation of Charles Stevens, who was convicted by a jury of a double murder. November 3, 1981 A3 convicting Stevens. The order signed by Richardson gives Schutter 30 days to submit a legal memo and within that time the prosecutor's office also may file another memo. Shintaku has the option of taking part in the case or deciding not to be an active party, the order says. Schutter said he has sent a letter to the state attorney general's office "reminding them of their statutory obligation to represent the judge" in such matters.

He said he expects the attorney general's office to join him in the case. Shintaku is home recovering from multiple skull fractures he suffered under mysterious circumstances hours after his arrest on drunken driving charges Oct. 6, which was the day he issued his written decision in the Stevens case. and friends, D'Enbeau said. "She believed that it was for real.

did not think of it as a scheme. thought of it as a good investment," D'Enbeau THE JURY MUST decide if Przeradzki "intentionally deceived" investors and whether Przeradzki differs from others who involved friends and family members in the container venture, D'Enbeau said. The scheme involved more than 100 people on Oahu and Maui, with some $5.5 million in investments lost, Honolulu detective Wayne Ferg-erstrom said outside court yesterday. The investigation is continuing and there may be more indictments in the case, he said. Fergerstrom, who is handling investigation of the scheme on Oahu, testified in court that Przeradzki will receive police protection when she comes to Oahu because police have gotten word there are "contracts out on her life." He testified that Przeradzki is to be a witness in a case on Oahu involving the container scheme.

Fergerstrom also testified that police have seized about 105 vehicles purchased from January 1980 to January 1981 by Mabel E. Maria, a Leeward Oahu resident named in a The company is seeking a new monthly service charge of $6 on Oahu and $5 on the Neighbor Islands. Gasco now has no service charge. THE FIRST hearing on that application is set for 6 p.m. Monday in the State Capitol auditorium.

In the same auditorium at 7 p.m. the three-member commission will begin hearing testimony on Hawaiian Telephone application for a 35 percent increase in the monthly telephone rental and other changes in service charges. Pay phone calls would cost 20 cents instead of the current 15 cents and there would be increases in the charges for calls between the Islands. Hawaiian Telephone also wants to separate the charges for Police Fire Two Charged Angeline McKay, 47, of 45-431 Kaneohe Bay Drive, was charged with manslaughter yesterday in the shooting death Sunday of her husband, John B. McKay, 64, in their Kaneohe home.

She was released after posting $2,000 bail, police said. In another case, Andres K. Quarte-ro, 34, of 19 Tong Ranch, was charged with first-degree assault in connection with the stabbing of his former wife Saturday, police said. Cynthia Quartero. 30, was stabbed while escorting her children on a trick-or-treat outing in Aina Koa.

She was in guarded condition this withdrawn irom nananng cases involving violent crime, and his only remaining commitment is the Robert Hall attempted murder case, now set for a January trial, Keller said. LARRY GREAN, head of the prosecutor's office screening and intake division, today responded to the newsletter, saying it is "hypocritical" of the Schutter Foundation to complain about criminal justice when its head, Schutter. is responsible for putting "Charlie Stevens back on the street." Saying the prosecutors' office "has been a whipping boy too long," Grean said criticism of the judiciary "is long overdue in this state." Grean said the "big stink" made good because she thought it was something we could profit from." Asked by Ho if Przeradzki had checked out the investment, Kalua said her sister didn't have enough time to research it. Another defense witness, Edwin Chu of Honolulu, testified that he had lent a relative some $60,000 to invest. He said he had followed Przeradzki on two occasions and had seen her deliver money in a brown paper sack to a woman who came out of the new municipal building on Oahu.

CHU TESTIFIED that he assumed the woman was Maria. A second time he followed Przeradzki to Honolulu City Hall, he said. He saw Maria emerge from a side door and Przeradzki give her a brown bag, Chu testified. Chu said he had followed Przeradzki because a lot of money was involved. Chu said he was told the money was taken to City Hall because the government was involved and "this is why it was safe." D'Enbeau said she expects to put three or four witnesses on the stand today and then rest her case.

arguments Nov. 18 in the Holualoa Community Center. The session on Gasco begins at 6 p.m. and the session on Hawaiian Telephone at 7 p.m. The commission will move to the Hawaii Electric Light Auditorium for the same 6 p.m.

and 7 p.m. pattern Nov. 19. Meanwhile, the PUC will hold a public hearing at 9 a.m. Thursday in its hearing room at 1164 Bishop St.

on an application by Hawaiian Electric Co. for approval to set itself up as a holding company. The PUC-regulated electric utility would become a subsidiary as would yet-to-be-developed non-regulated businesses which Hawaiian Electric said would better allow it to develop alternate energy sources, among other things. By Ellen Dyer Maui Correspondent WAILUKU Shirley Przeradzki collected about $2 million from Honolulu investors in a cargo container venture before seeking funds on Maui in the belief that the investments were "for real," her defense lawyer said yesterday. In opening statements to the jury, defense attorney Madelyn D'Enbeau portrayed Przeradzki, 62, as a believer, not a deceiver, in the container investments.

Przeradzki, formerly of St. Louis Drive in Honolulu, is charged with allegedly bilking 12 Maui residents out of some $371,000 last fall in Lahaina as part of a larger scheme also involving Oahu residents. About $6 million is believed to have been invested in "bond" money for government cargo containers holding electronic and other equipment. Investors were promised large returns but the containers never existed, the government said, i Przeradzki was indicted March 5 with: Richard Kishi, 57, of Lahaina, on 69 theft by deception counts. His trial is slated for Nov.

30. Przeradzki involved Maui residents in the venture for the same reasons she involved her own family Kokee Tracking Station Prepares for Big Night morning in Queen's a hospital spokesman said. Bail for Quartero was set at $25. 000, police said. Woman Injured A Queen Street woman was injured seriously this morning when the car she was driving went out of control and crashed into a concrete abutment on the Pali Highway near School Street, police said.

Ramona Hall, 21, was going m'akai at about 4:11 a.m. when her car veered into the abutment, police said. She was in guarded condition at Queen's Hospital this morning, a hospital spokesman said. able to see the shuttle in April, although he said a few residents in Ke-kaha reported that they sighted it about the time it was expected to be visible. However, he said, "There are several occasions, around 5 a.m.

or 6 a.m., in the next few days when we might be able to see it." ALL OF THE Kokee station's contacts with the shuttle will be in the early morning to early afternoon, he said. On the eighth orbit, about 1:14 p.m. tomorrow, the Kokee station will provide a private conference between the astronuats and medical personnel at the Houston Control Center. Honolulu Star-Bulletin Publiihad Doily Ept Sunday I at 605 Kapiolani Blvd. Moiling AddrMti P.O Son 3060.

Honolulu 96802 E'tvari Second Ctou Mot, wt Hsnohriw i (USPS 249460) T.Iphon. 525-8000 SUGGESTED SUBSCRIPTION RATES' Pur 4-Wo Doily Monday Through Saturday Parioal Oonu 60 Naiahbor hlondt S5 00 Neighbor hbndt Mail $5.30 Mainland Ship Moil S9 25 Par 4-WoV Sundoy Stor-Bullahn 4 Advwiiur Parkxt Oohu $3.40 Neighbor hlondt $4 00 Neighbor Mondi Moil $4.20 Moinlond Ship Moil $6 00 Par 4-Woak Doily ond Sundoy Pariod Oohu i $8.00 Naighbor Mondi $9.00 Naighbor klondi Moil $9. Moinlond Ship Moil 1h Monsiulw Stor luiUtw 4 damp, cncrhn raM upon 2t rfoy, writ nohct tor nil snri fcD-v aViwr wbMTibart. nd rhuiin aaimfcot, oit at iintita wrMOTpftM ie cwmpwwm to w. row Ttw, nsirca mov b4 or tvtti.

to oo wjoKrnW. by none dontonwd Sojr-luttoM rtojo or by oftnrr Opprootiot4 m4on for twior Mttornwnon ptwrw caH 4 wri wtoHiiri 'Qq paMrnom Ptwio 575 7600 'Ok. 3350 ttanohilu. Hrraou 96101 Member ot The Associated Press, subscriber to news services the New York Timet. Carmen Newt Service, Washington Star, and Field -News Service.

rvafionef edverfrsine reeresenrefion br Gaineri fvewspaoer Advertising Sales lawsuit filed by the state Office of Consumer Protection as a major promoter of the investment scheme. Fergerstrom testified that Maria gave the vehicles to her family and close friends. He said Maria also bought appliances, trips to the Mainland and Neighbor Islands, and jewelry. He testified that none of the cars or other items went to Przeradzki. QUESTIONED by Deputy Prosecutor Diane Ho, Fergerstrom said, however, "there is suspicion" in his mind that Przeradzki "is involved" in the scheme.

He said Przeradzki had made contradictory statements to police. Although Przeradzki had said she did not know how to reach Maria, Fergerstrom said that was false. Przeradzki's younger half-sister, Frances Kalua of Waimanalo on Oahu, testified yesterday that she invested $1,500 in the container scheme. Kalua, a defense witness, was asked by D'Enbeau whether Przeradzki would deceive her relatives. "Never," Kalua said.

"If you are down, she's there to help you." Kalua said the family was "always poor" and that Przeradzki involved the family in the investment "because she thought it was a telephone instrument rental from those for the telephone service itself. The commission then moves to Kauai, for hearings Thursday in the Wilcox School cafetorium in Lihue, at 6 p.m. on the Gasco increase and 7 p.m. on Hawaiian Telephone's case. THE NEXT hearings will be at 3:30 p.m.

Nov. 16 in the Lanai High School cafetorium, and at 7:30 p.m. the same day in Mitchell Pauole Community Center, Molokai. Those two sessions will be on telephone rates only. On Nov.

17, the commission will be in the Maui Electric Auditorium in Kahului for the Gasco hearing at 6 p.m. and the Hawaiian Telephone hearing at 7 p.m. Kona residents will get to hear the HI By Helen Altonn Star-Bulletin Writer Space tracking technicians at the Kokee station on Kauai had the day off today in preparation for a busy night of following the shuttle Columbia on its second mission, scheduled for launching at 2:30 a.m. tomorrow, Hawaii time. "Tonight will be a long night, Fidel R.

Rul manager of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) tracking station at Kokee, said in a telephone interview today. He said the crew will be working from 7 p.m. today until 4 p.m. tomorrow. "At least, we hope we will." Everything is set for Columbia Launch II except the unknown element of the weather, Rul said.

If it goes off on schedule, residents may be able to see the spacecraft as it comes over the horizon about 5 a.m. or 6 a.m., with the reflection of the sun before sunrise. "We're hoping we'll be able to see it at that time, but it will be flying at a low orbit and it goes over pretty fast," Rul said. HE SAID the Kokee station completed preparations for the space flight yesterday, after a series of exercises the past week testing its equipment and simulating data transmissions from the spacecraft. The station is expecting to track about 37 passes of the shuttle out of 84 orbits before it lands in California's Mojave Desert on Monday, Rul said.

"We'll see the spacecraft six times a day normally, except the last few he said. "The first pass in the morning is always the most exciting one and we will be receiving television transmissions from the astronauts," Rul said. The Kokee station is one of only four stations in the tracking network equipped with a new television system enabling it to see everything that's happening with the shuttle astronauts. Rul said the system worked beautifully with the first shuttle mission in April. "We had excellent reception, so resolution on the pictures was just excellent." He noted that the trackers weren't HELLO, OPERATOR? Telephones were very busy at Pearl Harbor during the weekend when the USS Constellation along with seven other ships arrived in Honolulu en route to the Western Pacific.

Sailors from the fleet quickly swarmed around the telephone booths to make long-awaited calls to friends and family. Star-Bulletin Photo by Ken Sakamoto. PUC Sets Gasco, HawTel Rate Hearings I By Russ Lynch Star-Bulletin Writer Consumers who want to hear arguments on both sides of some impor tant Public utilities commission decisions affecting their pocketbooks may do so in a series of public hearings to begin Monday in Honolulu and later in the Neighbor Islands. 1 Isle consumers will be represented by the Public Utilities Division, officially the state's consumer advocate in deliberations on the regulated Utilities. First is the application of Gasco, "the gas-energy utility owned by Pacific Resources to put its up 13 percent on Oahu, 17 percent on Kauai, 20 percent on the Big Island and 31 percent on i.