By Jean Christensen / Associated Press
An American Samoa factory owner facing charges of worker abuse asked on July 16 that his case be dismissed because the federal court in Hawaii does not have jurisdiction.
Kil Soo Lee contends he has a constitutional right to stand trial in American Samoa, where the alleged crime was committed.
FBI agents arrested Lee in March and brought him to Hawaii on federal charges of involuntary servitude. The South Korean national is accused of forcing workers at his Daewoosa Samoa Ltd. factory in Tafuna to work for little or no pay, feeding them little, and subjecting some to beatings.
Most of the factory’s 250 workers were women from Vietnam.
Lee’s public defender, Alexander Silvert, said the federal government has no authority to prosecute his client in Hawaii, even though its U.S. District Court is the closest to American Samoa, a U.S. territory 2,300 miles south of Hawaii.
Unlike the U.S. territory of Guam and the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa does not have its own U.S. District Court.
Lee’s motion for dismissal, filed on July 16, said federal law provides for the High Court of American Samoa to be the first to hear cases involving alleged crimes within the territory.
The motion said the federal court in Hawaii acknowledged in a 1982 case that territorial courts are competent to decide cases involving federal statutes and the Constitution.
It blasted the FBI for bringing Lee to Hawaii “without knowledge of or prior notification to the American Samoa government,” as it said is required by federally sanctioned territorial extradition rules.
“In essence, the actions of the FBI amounted to nothing less than kidnapping under the vale of official authority,” the motion said. “Never in the history of American Samoan-United States relations has such an arrest been conducted without compliance with the laws of American Samoa.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Sorenson said the motion was “fully expected and we’re prepared to respond to it.”
“Certainly, if the United States acquiesced to have its criminal matters heard in territorial courts, that would be a bad precedent,” Sorenson said.
University of Hawaii law professor Jon Van Dyke said the motion raises questions that haven’t been clearly answered by appellate courts.
“The situation in all the territories is confused, but in American Samoa, it may be even more confused than others,” he said. “If they don’t think the courts in Samoa are adequate, then we should have better courts there.”
Lee’s trial is scheduled for Sept. 25 before Judge Susan Oki Mollway. He is being held at Oahu Community Correctional Center.
Silvert said he expects to call more than 150 witnesses, most of them American Samoa residents and many of them high-ranking territorial officials and law enforcement officers.
Holding the trial in Hawaii “would virtually shut down the American Samoa government and would seriously impair the day-to-day operations of the police force,” the motion said.
The motion seeks dismissal of the case so that the American Samoan courts may decide whether they have jurisdiction.
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