Judge deciding whether man can build property over Hawaiian burials

A contentious legal battle on Kaua’i over what constitutes proper treatment of unmarked Hawaiian burials could lead to new state laws on the subject, the judge hearing the case said yesterday.

Fifth Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Watanabe said she’ll decide by Sept. 16 whether to grant Kaua’i resident Jeff Chandler’s request that she stop construction of a house at a beachfront lot on Kaua’i’s North Shore.

But Watanabe warned the parties that “this court has a very small amount it can do with this case,” which involves the fate of 30 iwi, or Native Hawaiian skeletal remains, unearthed at the property.

“The biggest problem is the law does not go far enough to protect these burials,” Watanabe said yesterday after three days of testimony regarding Chandler’s motion for a preliminary injunction to stop construction on a lot owned by Joseph Brescia, a California resident.

“Perhaps the best thing that will come out of this case will be some changes in the law,” the judge said.

Chandler’s lawsuit names Brescia, state Historic Preservation Division Administrator Pua Aiu and state Department of Land and Natural Resources Director Laura Thielen. It alleges that Brescia’s archeological consultants “submitted an incomplete and misleading burial treatment plan” to the state Historic Preservation Division about how he would deal with the burials, some of which are believed to date from the 13th century.

The Historic Preservation Division, which is a part of the DLNR, improperly overturned a decision by the Kaua’i-Ni’ihau Island Burial Council to “preserve in place” the 30 burials on the land, the lawsuit said.

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(Source: Honolulu Advertiser)