Hawai‘i Island Circuit Court Judges Ronald Ibarra, Greg K. Nakamura, Glenn S. Hara, and District Court Judges Harry P. Freitas and Joseph Florendo are formally under criminal investigation by the Criminal Investigation Section of the Hawai‘i County Police Department for their alleged role in war crimes by denying defendants a fair and regular trial in foreclosure and ejectment proceedings at the court houses in Hilo and Kona. War crimes are felonies under federal law according to the 1996 War Crimes Act, Title 18 United States Code §2441. These preliminary investigations will then be routed to the United States Pacific Command headquartered at Camp Smith in Honolulu for prosecution because it is the federal agency responsible under the War Crimes Act.

The War Crimes Act is enforceable “outside” of U.S. territory when the United States military is the occupant of an occupied State. Title 18, U.S.C., §2441 reinforces the Lili`uokalani assignment, the 1907 Hague Convention, IV, the 1949 Geneva Convention, IV, and U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 to criminally prosecute individuals who commit war crimes/felonies within Hawaiian territory.

Also under investigation for war crimes are the plaintiffs who initiated the complaints for foreclosure and ejectment that include Federal National Mortgage Association, Bank of Hawai‘i, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, The Bank of New York Mellon, Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, Inc., Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, Wells Fargo Bank, and the lenders’ attorneys Blue Ka‘anehe, Esq., Charles Prather, Esq., Peter K. Keegan, Esq., Mitzi A. Lee, Esq., Sofia M. Hirosane, Esq., Michael G.K. Wong, Esq., Robert E. Chapman, Esq., Mary Martin, Esq., Robert D. Triantos, Esq., Edmund W.K.  Haitsuka, Esq., and Peter Stone, Esq.

Kale Gumapac, President of Laulima Title Search & Claims, LLC, who is one of the seven victims of the alleged felony war crimes, said the other six victims are also clients of his company. Laulima Title packages title insurance claims that provide evidence of a defect in title to property that triggers the title insurance policy purchased at escrow by the borrowers to cover the debt owed to the bank. Purchasing title insurance to protect the bank is a condition of the loan. The banks disregarded the insurance claims and proceeded to foreclose and evict Laulima clients.

The defect stems from two executive agreements entered into in 1893 between Queen Lili‘uokalani and U.S. President Grover Cleveland that settled the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian government and mandates the U.S. military in the Hawaiian Islands to administer Hawaiian law, restore the government, and thereafter for the Hawaiian government to grant amnesty to the insurgents. The United States violated the terms of these agreements and began its illegal and prolonged occupation of the Hawaiian Islands since the Spanish-American War in August 1898.

Real estate transactions are defective since January 17, 1893 because deeds were notarized and registered in the Bureau of Conveyances by insurgents calling themselves government officials. The Queen did not pardon these individuals and they were not government officials of the Hawaiian Kingdom. And as a result of the illegal occupation by the United States since 1898, deeds could not be properly notarized and recorded because Hawaiian law was not being administered.

Gumapac stated that when the banks disregarded the insurance contract and used the courts to foreclose and evict, he had no choice but to present evidence that the courts are illegal because the Hawaiian Kingdom as a sovereign state still exists. Attorney Dexter Kaiama represented Gumapac and other clients of Laulima with this argument by providing special appearance in these hearings.

Gumapac stated, “If land titles in Hawai‘i are defective because of 1893, then U.S. courts in Hawai‘i are defective as well.” Gumapac says the reason why people today don’t know this is because we’ve been indoctrinated through Americanization since the early 1900s. He says Americanization is not an excuse for committing a felony.

In the criminal complaint, Gumapac stated that on January 13, 2012 he filed a motion to dismiss Deutsche Bank National Trust Company’s eviction complaint providing evidence of the occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom and that the court was illegally constituted. The hearing was heard before Judge Greg K. Nakamura in Hilo’s Circuit Court on February 14, 2012. Although Kaiama was able to get Nakamura to acknowledge and take judicial notice of the evidence, Nakamura still denied the motion to dismiss without cause.

Nakamura’s decision relied on the 1959 Hawai‘i Admissions Act for the court’s jurisdiction, but without a treaty of cession the Statehood Act is limited to United States territory because Congressional laws have no force and effect in foreign countries. In the criminal complaint Gumapac cited a 1936 U.S. Supreme Court case, U.S. v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp, where the court stated, “Neither the Constitution nor the laws passed in pursuance of it have any force in foreign territory unless in respect of our own citizens; and operations of the nation in such territory must be governed by treaties, international understandings and compacts, and the principles of international law.”

Gumapac alleges that Nakamura, Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, and their attorneys Charles Prather, and Sofia Hirosone from the law firm Routh Crabtree Olsen, aka RCO, committed a war crime by willfully depriving him of a fair and regular trial prescribed under Title 18, United States Code, section 2441, which applies to foreign countries that the United States military is occupying. Gumapac argues that the appropriate court is a military commission established by the U.S. Pacific Command that administers Hawaiian Kingdom law. The Pacific Command has yet to comply with international law and establish a military commission.

The Pacific Command has primary responsibility for the prosecution of individuals for violations of Title 18, United States Code, §2441, and the 1949 Geneva Convention, IV. The International Criminal Court has secondary responsibility and will step in if:

1. The proceedings were or are being undertaken or the national decision was made for the purpose of shielding the person concerned from criminal responsibility for crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court;
2. There has been an unjustified delay in the proceedings which in the circumstances is inconsistent with an intent to bring the person concerned to justice; and
3. The proceedings were not or are not being conducted independently or impartially, and they were or are being conducted in a manner which, in the circumstances, is inconsistent with an intent to bring the person concerned to justice.

By not complying with the international obligations and the International Criminal Court exercises jurisdiction over the Hawaiian Islands as a result of the Pacific Command’s failure to prosecute, the Pacific Command itself and the military in the islands will also be the subject of prosecution by the International Criminal Court for the commission of war crimes.