Hawaii’s Circuit Court Judge Gary Chang decided Monday, April 30, that Malia Zimmerman, editor and reporter for Hawaii Reporter, should be deposed as part of a civil lawsuit by retired auto mogul Jimmy Pflueger. Mr. Pflueger, who was convicted in 2005 on 10 felony counts for illegal grubbing and grading of Kauai’s Pilaa Bay, also owns the Ka Loko Dam, which bursts on March 14, 2006, killing 8 people and causing millions of dollars in property damage.

Mr. Pflueger is being investigated criminally by the state attorney general for the dam breach, and is being sued civilly in 2006 by the victims’ families and property owners. Mr. Pflueger countered with a lawsuit in 2006, suing the state, the irrigation company that maintained the dam and the dam’s former owner.

Ms. Zimmerman is the journalist following the story more closely than any other, and has published more than two-dozen investigative reports. She is the only reporter who secured an interview with Mr. Pflueger. As a result, she was hired as a consultant by ABC 20/20 to help with the production of that network’s March 2007 investigative report, which focused largely on Mr. Pflueger’s likely culpability. Witnesses say Mr. Pflueger covered the dam’s main safety feature, its spillway, despite warnings not to do so. A state investigative report by attorney Robert Carson Godbey says the dam breach was most likely caused by Mr. Pflueger’s covering of the spillway.

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(Source: Hawaii Reporter)