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State v. Letuli9/16/2002
at at the next setting, the dismissed charges would not be available for plea bargaining purposes.
The Court stated, "objection noted", and proceeded to continue the remaining charges until February 9, 2001. No reason was given by the Court for the dismissal of the above charges.
Nothing in the record suggests that the district court's reason for dismissing the six charges was its conclusion that each was de minimis as defined in HRS § 702-236 (1993).
Nothing in the record suggests that the district court was exercising its inherent power to dismiss traffic offenses for want of prosecution.
The fact that only six of the charges were dismissed with prejudice suggests that it is unlikely that the trial court's reason for dismissing the six charges with prejudice was the absence of an interpreter. Assuming the trial court's reason for sua sponte dismissing the six charges with prejudice was the absence of an interpreter, the first question is, why did the court dismiss only six of the charges with prejudice?
The second question is whether the absence of an interpreter is, by itself, a valid reason for sua sponte dismissing with prejudice the six charges. Based on the record, the answer to this question is no. There is no evidence that the State was in any way at fault for the absence of the requested interpreter. Hawaii Rules of Penal Procedure Rule 28(b) (2002) states, "The court may appoint an interpreter of its own selection and may fix the reasonable compensation of such interpreter. Such compensation shall be paid out of such funds as may be provided by law." Therefore, there is no basis for sanctioning the State by suasponte dismissing the six charges with prejudice.
CONCLUSION
Accordingly, we vacate the Order of Dismissal With Prejudice entered on December 29, 2000, sua sponte dismissing with prejudice some but not all of the charges against Defendant-Appellee Pesamino Letuli, and we remand for further proceedings.
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