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Hell of a Tie
January 18, 2007
Most attorneys who go to court dress pretty bland. But not Wailuku criminal defense attorney David Cain. On the morning of Jan. 4, 2007, Cain got up and put on a pretty dull black suit, which he then enlivened with a bright necktie displaying a bold, splashy image of a martini. For district court, the tie may have been too much. But this morning, Cain was headed off to defend his client Life's a Beach in Kihei before the Liquor Control Board of Adjudication.
There he met Glenn Kunitake, a member of the Adjudication Board who on the morning of Jan. 4 did not put on a bright necktie displaying a splashy image of anything. Hawaii National Bank's VP/Regional Manager with three decades in the financial industry, Kunitake is a past member of the county's Kula Agricultural Park Committee and the county Board of Variances and Appeals.
Kunitake and the board really went after Life's a Beach. Not only did they fine the popular dive bar $2,000 for one count of serving booze to an off-duty employee who was allegedly already drunk—$1,000 more than Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Scott Hanono requested—but then Kunitake lectured Cain after the board rendered its judgment.
"I know you're in charge of training," Kunitake said. "This is a very serious violation. This type of violation, the way it transpired, needs to be avoided at all costs."
Cain sat there humbly during the tongue-lashing. His client had pled no contest to the charge, so it wasn't like there was much of a defense to offer, though he did use the word "obviously" too many times.
"Obviously this case kind of slipped through the cracks," he had told the board earlier that morning, adding that management had fired the drunken employee and reprimanded the bartender and server on duty that night. "Obviously she [the employee in question] has some problems and some liquor issues to deal with… Obviously we're one of the bigger establishments on the island in terms of serving."
As far as defenses go, it was pretty fair. The board just didn't buy it. Who knows—maybe it was the tie