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State v. Helm11/22/2000
Defendant-Appellant Fred Helm (Helm) appeals the August 10, 1999, judgment of conviction and sentence of the district court, which found Helm guilty of Impersonating a Public Servant under Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) § 710-1016 (1993) and sentenced Helm to one year probation, 100 hours of community service, a $500 fine, and a $50 criminal injuries compensation fund fee assessment. We affirm.
I.
On February 23, 1999, the State of Hawaii, Department of Agriculture, Plant Quarantine Branch, received an unopened Department of Agriculture envelope addressed to Stanton C. Oshiro (Oshiro), Attorney at Law, with a return address of the Department of Agriculture, Plant Quarantine Branch. The letter had been marked by the post office as "not deliverable as addressed" and "unable to forward." Upon opening the envelope, Myron Isherwood (Isherwood), the Plant Quarantine Program Manager, found a letter purportedly written and signed by himself to Oshiro. The letter offered an excuse for why Helm, an employee with the Department of Agriculture, had missed a recent court date in Hilo relating to a Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicating Liquor (DUI) arrest. Missing the hearing had resulted in Helm's being found in contempt of court. The letter asked Oshiro, as Helm's attorney, to ask the presiding judge in Hilo to drop the contempt charge because Helm had allegedly been in Guam carrying out job-related duties for the Department of Agriculture. Attached to the letter was a copy of a federal Fish and Wildlife Permit naming the Hawaii Department of Agriculture as the permittee, the general permit conditions associated with the Fish and Wildlife permit, and a copy of Senate Bill No. 521 from the 1999 Legislative Session relating to the brown tree snake.
At a bench trial, Isherwood testified that the signature appearing on the letter was not his and that he, in fact, had not written the letter. Isherwood also testified that he had the obligation to enforce HRS Chapter 150A (includes authority to issue citations, execute a warrant, and seize contraband). He further testified that he had the authority to enforce Title 4, Subtitle 6, Chapters 70 through 73 of the Hawaii Administrative Rules (with specific authority to issue citations and execute on warrants) and the authority to enforce HRS Chapter 141.
Helm was found guilty, as charged, of Impersonating a Public Servant, with the court specifically holding:
That the court finds that all these matters were done intentionally; that you were representing yourself to be a public servant; that it was not yourself but was with the official manager of the Department of Agriculture; that all these matters were done not in any matters having to do with matters regarding a police or peace officer but other matters not related to that effect. Id. at 60.
The court then reiterated its position after being questioned by defense counsel saying, " he court finds-- s I said before in my findings of fact that these matters were done in matters not involving peace related, peace officer, just peace related activities."
Helm filed a timely appeal.
II.
Hawaii Revised Statutes § 710-1016 (1993) reads, in part, as follows:
§710-1016 Impersonating a public servant. (1) A person commits the offense of impersonating a public servant if the person pretends to be a public servant other than a peace officer and engages in any conduct in that capacity with intent to deceive anyone.
(2) It is no defense to a prosecution under this section that the office the person pretended to hold did not in fact exist.
Helm contends that to be convicted under
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