Maui Fascists Issue License to Murder Kurt Butler

The Truth that Maui Government Criminals, the Maui Visitors’ Bureau, and their Lackeys in the Media Don’t Want You to Know about Maui’s Broken Justice System

During July and August I spent about 100 hours on sidewalks at high-traffic spots in downtown Wailuku displaying large signs that make outlandish defamatory allegations about Mayor Alan Arakawa. I called him a “pedophile” and a “cannibal,” followed by the words “I swear this is true under penalty of perjury.” I had made the claims up.

On August 18 I filed a petition in district court for a temporary restraining order (TRO) alleging that the mayor had phoned me several times and threatened me with violence if I continued to defame him. My signature certified that my statements were true, sworn under penalty of perjury. My phone records show that calls were made to me from a pay phone in the county building at the times I alleged that the mayor had called me. But a check of the security camera near that phone would show me making those calls.

A few days later I sent an anonymous letter to the county prosecutor along with a copy of the TRO petition, which I said had been obtained by the broadcast station where I worked. As an Arakawa supporter and friend, I said, I am outraged and want Kurt Butler prosecuted for perjury. I explained how perjury might be proved by evidence from Butler’s phone records and from the mayor’s schedule log and his staff. I served myself up to the prosecutor on a silver platter.

Now, months after my criminal prank, I still have not heard from the police or the prosecutor. To my knowledge, no charges have been filed against me and probably none will be. Of course they would love to charge and jail me, but their own long-standing perjury decriminalization policy, an illegal policy that undermines the integrity of the justice system, makes prosecution impossible.

Three times in the last decade I was arrested on the basis of perjured TRO petitions. I spent a total of 35 days in jail, incurred legal expenses and major hassles, and suffered defamation as bad as my recent defamation of the mayor. The taxpayers paid thousands for all this. When the criminal lies were exposed I tried to have the perjurers prosecuted but I was always told that the police, by policy, do not investigate complaints of perjury, and that the prosecutor does not take action unless the police investigate first. Others have told me similar stories and, to my knowledge, the county has never prosecuted a case of perjury. Because of this illegal policy, we are all at the mercy of criminal liars, trials are a farce, and unjust verdicts are very common.

The de facto veto by the county government of the anti-perjury law passed by the state legislature is patently unconstitutional, a violation of separation of powers. The mayor, the police chief and the prosecutor take oaths to uphold and enforce the law. They have no right to pick and choose which laws to enforce. For years I have complained to county officials and council members about the policy and the harm it does to innocent people and to the justice system itself, but I have never received a reply from any of them.

If common people are not protected from the crime of perjury, why should the powerful people responsible for the policy be protected? I defamed and pranked the mayor and others in an attempt to force a showdown on this issue.

The county government must finally do what I have been urging it to do since 2001: admit that its perjury decriminalization policy is unconstitutional as well as harmful to its victims and to the integrity of the system, then initiate serious reforms. These must include: (1) a press release announcing an end to perjury decriminalization and informing people that police officers will investigate complaints of perjury the same as any other serious crime; (2) a memo to all Maui police officers directing them to investigate and file reports on complaints of perjury as they would any other serious crime; (3) change the standard TRO petition forms to emphasize the seriousness of perjury and the right of respondents to a fair investigation should they complain of perjury in the petition.

I resolve to strictly fast (0 calories/day) until the county initiates these reforms. This protest fast started at noon on Monday, October 13, 2014.

This protest is also against the local media (Maui News, et al) all of which stubbornly refuse to investigate the issue or publish my comments on it. If the county government criminals and the MVB don’t want a particular can of worms opened, their media stooges won’t open it. Is this democracy?

Strict fasting by someone my age (70) can cause blindness and coma in as little as 3 weeks and death in as little as 5 weeks. The government criminals have not moved one inch in 12 years of my complaining and protesting in every way I can think of. They will even tolerate my repeatedly defaming them in public demonstrations rather than reform their illegal policy, so I don’t expect them to move now. I expect to die.  

How You Can Help: Buy Barbarians in Paradise/Terror Comes to Maui, a dramatic flash novel about the likely future of Maui if we don’t get real reforms. Available in paperback and e-book. And buy gift copies for friends. Do this and I may be able to get my website back up with a provider less likely to censor it at the insistence of Maui government criminals (which my ex-provider, Wix, did). Then the truth can continue to be told even if I die.                      

Maui-Style Fascism

Fascism is generally defined as a totalitarian system in which government and business join in a partnership that denies, violates and suppresses basic freedoms such as freedom of speech, assembly and religion, as well as the right to due process. While some may quibble with the exact definition, most of us recognize fascism and fascist tendencies when we see them. Under fascism there is no rule of law, only a pretense thereof.

You can see fascist tendencies at work in the ten-year saga of Alive and Well Health Fraud Store plus Maui County against Kurt Butler (that's me). I've told most of this story in previous blog posts. See

www.KillerLies.blogspot.com and

www.SueMauiTyrants.blogspot.com. And I've written about how lawyers refused to help me protect my rights because I could not afford a retainer, except for two lawyers who said they would help me, but only ripped me off. See

www.RottenLawyersOfHawaii.blogspot.com.

The case boils down to this: the state and county allow Alive and Well, a brazenly criminal enterprise, to thrive by ripping off and endangering the public every day. They apparently do this because the store pays taxes and employs people who pay taxes. There may also be more direct forms of bribery going on, but I have no evidence of that. 

In its greed to maximize those tax revenues, at the expense of the public it is supposed to serve, the County shields the business from criticism and exposure of its crimes by allowing it to silence its critic(s) by criminal means. For ten years I have attempted to expose the store's dangerous lies by displaying a sign and distributing literature near the store, and the store owners and employees have committed a slew of crimes in attempting to silence me, including harassment, theft of my flyers, perjury and brutal violence. 

The fact that five judges affirmed my right to demonstrate did not deter them in the slightest, probably because it did not deter the County's opposition to my activities.


In addition to unlawfully arresting me for "protesting without a permit," the County has allowed these criminals to harass, terrorize, assault, batter and seriously injure me. Even though a brutal assault was witnessed by two police officers, the police refused to make  arrests and the prosecutors refused to indict or call a grand jury.

Then the County maliciously sabotaged my effort to get justice via a civil lawsuit by preventing the police witnesses to the assault from testifying, costing me tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars.


Amazingly, the County made it clear to me that it would not have arrested or prosecuted the assailant and his bosses even if I had been killed in the assault that was witnessed by police officers. In essence, it issued to Alive and Well Health Fraud Store a license to murder me should I lawfully demonstrate near the store. 

I say the County did this, but it is important to name the individual County employees responsible and invite them to reply to my allegations and explain and defend county policies and their own actions. They are Police Officers Kenneth Kihata, George Kronoski, Samuel Gasmen, Mary Sagawinit and Vernon Gosney; Police Chiefs Thomas Phillips and Gary Yabuta; Prosecutors Gerry Sheppard, Marie Kosegarten, Benjamin Acob and John Kim; County lawyers Moana Lutey, Brian Moto and Patrick Wong; and Mayors Alan Arakawa and Charmaine Tavares. 

These are the county culprits in this case; other victims of the county's crimes would name other individuals. The problem is systemic and institutional. These people engage in this kind of outrageous behavior because they have a fascist mentality fostered by the deeply ingrained culture of the county government. They have nothing but contempt for the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, and will trample them without a second thought.

I'm writing about all this not to whine about the County picking on poor little me, but to expose and illustrate the mindset that leads the County to abuse people and violate their rights as a matter of routine. The County's crimes against me have been so brazen and extraordinary that it's breathtaking -- until you hear about some of the things it has done to other people.

A very scary aspect of this sorry episode is that I repeatedly informed all Maui Council Members of what was going on and asked them to tell the Mayor, the Chief of Police and the County Prosecutor that I have as much right to stand on a public sidewalk, sign-wave and offer flyers as they do. Not one of them would do it. That's how these people are. They really believe in their privileged status. They really believe that they are "more equal" than common people and that rights they demand for themselves are not necessarily available to others.

So, is it fair to say that Maui is now fascist? Not quite, but it is fair to say that it's displaying strong fascist tendencies and it's getting worse, approaching a kind of quasi-fascism. If this trend is not reversed soon we could find ourselves living in a frankly fascist county before long.

The question is, when will people start fighting back? And, with justice rarely available through the courts, how will they fight back? Perhaps a novel holds some answers to these questions.

Maui's future foretold:  Barbarians In Paradise -- Terror Comes to Maui. This is a prophetic flash novel about a future police state and those who rebel against it. Available in paperback and ebook at Amazon. 
Reviews, comments:
"Diabolical and outrageous. Should be banned." Linda Lingle, ex-Maui mayor, ex-Hawaii governor.
"A wet dream of vengeance for victims of government abuse." Anonymous reader.
"A prophecy too plausible to ignore but too terrible to contemplate." Anonymous.
"Maui's future? America's future?" Anonymous.
"Profound and potentially dangerous." Kirtus Reviews.

Links to my other blogs:  www.KurtButlerblogs.blogspot.com

The cartoon below was contributed by Kai Lani. Click on the image for a view that does it justice.