Nicholson vs. Harmon - Witness June Jones

David C. Farmer, Successor-Trustee vs. Harmon

(Formerly Woo vs. Harmon & Nicholson vs. Harmon)

CV05-00030 DAE KSC

U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii

Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang

—

DEFENDANT’S WITNESS

JUNE JONES

From wikipedia:

June Sheldon Jones, III (born February 19, 1953, Portland, Oregon) is an American football coach, formerly with the Atlanta Falcons and the University of Hawaii; currently with SMU.

Playing Career

Jones played the quarterback position on three college teams: Oregon (1971-1972), Hawaii (1973-1974), and Portland State (1975-1976).... Thereafter, he entered professional football, playing for the Atlanta Falcons (1977-1981) of the National Football League and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (1982)....

Coaching Career

In 1983, Jones started his coaching career as a graduate assistant under Dick Tomey at the University of Hawaii. He then spent two years in the USFL, first as the wide receivers coach for the Houston Gamblers (1984), then as the offensive coordinator for the Denver Gold (1985). Following the demise of the USFL, Jones spent the 1986 season working as an offensive assistant for the Ottawa Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. In 1987, he got his first NFL coaching position serving as the quarterbacks coach on Jerry Glanville's staff with the Houston Oilers. After Glanville was released by the Oilers, he would join the Detroit Lions coaching staff upon the recommendation of Mouse Davis, his college head coach at Portland State who was serving as the team's offensive coordinator....

Hawaii

Jones joined the University of Hawaiʻi-Manoa football team as head coach, replacing Fred von Appen, who was fired when the team lost 18 games in a row, including all twelve games in the 1998 season. Jones led the Warriors to a 9-4 record and a share of the Western Athletic Conference football championship in the 1999 season, making it the most dramatic turnaround in NCAA football history. With Jones's success on the field, and media-friendly persona off the field, he instantly became one of the most famous people in Hawaii, with some people making "June Jones for Governor" T-shirts....

Jones nearly died in a car accident on February 22, 2001, missing the spring season because of his injuries....

Criticism

Jones' time in Hawaii has not been without controversy. He has set new precedents as head coach, and some fault him for discarding long-standing traditions. After his first season, he made several changes to the identity of the football team, including changing the name of the football team from "Rainbow Warriors" to simply "Warriors."

During the 2004 season, after negotiating a contract with a $800,000 annual salary making him the highest-paid public employee in the state, he faced discontent from fans, faculty and media about his struggling team.

The team eventually finished with a 7-5 regular season and a victory in the Hawaii Bowl....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Jones

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THE JUNE JONES PHOTO GALLERY

http://starbulletin.com/2001/02/22/news/story1.html

http://starbulletin.com/2001/02/23/news/story1.html

http://starbulletin.com/2003/06/17/news/story2.html

http://starbulletin.com/specials/uhfootball/2007/running-backs

http://honolulujazzclub.com/celebrities.htm

http://www.pbase.com/justrollthedice/image/25301422

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NEW DISCOVERY (05/29/08):

May 29, 2008

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII ATHLETICS

June Jones-UH dispute
heads to mediation

Star-Bulletin staff, Star-Bulletin

The University of Hawaii and former football coach June Jones will attempt to resolve a contract dispute through mediation. UH is seeking payment of $400,008 from Jones due to a clause in his final UH contract that called for the penalty if he left the school prior to the end of his five-year deal. Jones resigned to take the head coaching job at Southern Methodist in January, close to six months before the contract was to expire.

The process began yesterday with a pre-mediation meeting. Mediation begins June 9 with Clyde Matsui, a prominent local attorney, serving as the mediator.

Jones' contract stipulated that disputes would be resolved through arbitration. But UH spokesman Gregg Takayama said Jones' representatives suggested going to mediation and the school agreed. The matter will go to binding arbitration if the parties are unable to reach an agreement.

Jones' agent, Leigh Steinberg, has contended that Jones and former athletic director Herman Frazier had a verbal agreement that the coach would be free to accept another job without penalty. Jones' contract states that "terms between the parties may be amended only in writing signed by both parties."

http://starbulletin.com/2008/05/29/sports/story01.html

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NEW DISCOVERY (01/04/08): DAVID C. FARMER WAS TEAMMATE OF JUNE JONES WITH THE ATLANTA FALCONS:

August 24, 2007

WARRIOR FOOTBALL

Farmer’s forte is blocking

By Jason Kaneshiro, Star-Bulletin

David Farmer's particular skill set won't get him on the highlight tape very often.

But it could make him the first running back to take the field when Hawaii opens the season a week from tomorrow.

The junior's consistency, understanding of his assignments and willingness to throw his body in front of charging defensive ends have put him in a mix of three backs expected to share time this season.

Most of the preseason buzz has centered on the potential of freshman Kealoha Pilares and sophomore transfer Leon Wright-Jackson, both blessed with speed and elusiveness. Meanwhile, Farmer remains a valuable, if unheralded, part of the rotation by constantly looking for contact.

"It's kind of become my niche, my role on the team," Farmer said of serving as quarterback Colt Brennan's personal bodyguard.

"If I want to get on the field, it's not going to be running 60-yard touchdowns. If it takes blocking a 300-pound D-end, then that's what I'll do. I'll take him head up. I don't know if I'll always win, but I know I'll go 100 percent, and usually when you do that good things happen."

UH coach June Jones said all three will likely rotate, and whoever is first on the field will depend on his game plan....

Farmer -- whose father, Dave, played at USC and was Jones' teammate with the Atlanta Falcons in the late '70s -- played fullback at Aptos (Calif.) High School and could have accepted academic scholarships to several schools. Instead, he chose to walk on at Hawaii....

http://starbulletin.com/2007/08/24/sports/story03.html

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August 28, 2007

FARMER EARNS A SCHOLARSHIP

By Dave Reardon, Star-Bulletin

Hawaii walk-on junior running back David Farmer received a scholarship, coach June Jones announced to the team after practice this morning.

Farmer, listed as No. 1 on the depth chart for Saturday’s opener against Northern Colorado, was hoisted into the air by teammates.

“He’s worked hard and he’s a great kid,” Jones said.

Then as an inititiation, he was the only player to have to run a 220-yard “conditioning run,” and then ran and dived through a gauntlet of high- and low-fives.

“That’ll be a fun call,” said Farmer, looking forward to phoning his parents with the news. “ (Coaches) told me for a long time I was close. I never got discouraged because if you’re doing it just for a scholarship, you’re doing it for the wrong reason.”

He said he will enjoy one of the fringe benefits.

“Yes, my first scholarship breakfast,” Farmer said. “I’m on a diet, so it’ll just be cereal and mango. But it will taste great.”

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August 28, 2007

David Farmer Gets a Scholarship

Dave Reardon has the details.

“That’ll be a fun call,” said Farmer, looking forward to phoning his parents with the news. “(Coaches) told me for a long time I was close. I never got discouraged because if you’re doing it just for a scholarship, you’re doing it for the wrong reason.”

He said he will enjoy one of the fringe benefits.

“Yes, my first scholarship breakfast,” Farmer said. “I’m on a diet, so it’ll just be cereal and mango. But it will taste great.”

Right on. Congratulations to Farmer.

UPDATE: Check out Leila Wai's video on David Farmer, with an interview after he got the scholie.

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NEW DISCOVERY (01/07/08):

January 7, 2008

June Jones struggling with SMU call

Coach weighing lucrative offer against late Hawaii counter

By KATE HAIROPOULOS / The Dallas Morning News
khairopoulos@dallasnews.com

Considering SMU football's struggles during the last 20 years, perhaps the wild drama that unfolded Sunday in the school's efforts to hire June Jones as its new football coach shouldn't be surprising.

As of late Sunday night, Jones was still deciding between taking the SMU job and returning to Hawaii, according to agent Leigh Steinberg.

Steinberg said he expected a decision Sunday night – or early this morning Dallas time. SMU athletic director Steve Orsini did not return a call seeking comment.

While Jones was in Dallas meeting with SMU president R. Gerald Turner, Orsini, trustees and the school's search committee and enjoying dinner with boosters at a local steakhouse, Hawaii supporters made a tremendous 11th-hour push to try to keep Jones.

It had seemed a foregone conclusion that Jones would accept SMU's five-year offer of between $1.7 million and $2 million a year, according to two sources, after reports surfaced Saturday that he had tendered a resignation letter before flying to Dallas.

But on Sunday, Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle called to intervene. David McClain, the president of the University of Hawaii system, called with a third, "amplified" offer, Steinberg said.

For more about SMU, GO TO > > > The Buzzards in the Halls of SMU

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August 25, 2002

Isle divorces can be kept
hush hush — for a price

By Rob Perez, Star-Bulletin

A year ago the wife of University of Hawaii football coach June Jones filed a lawsuit seeking a legal separation from her husband and custody of their children.

A few years before that, Al and April Masini, the wealthy high-society couple of Hawaii's television industry, went to court to get a divorce.

More than a decade before that, the wife of prominent Honolulu attorney David Schutter filed a lawsuit seeking to end their marriage.

Besides the celebrity factor, all three cases have something in common.

They have since been sealed by the court.

That means not only are they confidential but that all public evidence of their existence has basically been wiped out.

Check the court's public-records computer and online system and you get zilch.

You can't find out when the cases were filed.

You can't find out what happened to them.

You can't even get a file number or names of the parties involved, the most basic information in a court document.

It's as if the cases never existed, with the court removing all identifying markers from the public-access system.

Just trying to find out whether a divorce was granted -- usually routine public information -- requires submitting a special request to the judge in these super-secret cases.

The request, of course, can be denied.

Yet the records in Hawaii's other divorce cases, thousands of them typically involving the state's less prominent and less wealthy, are open for the world to see, warts and all.

Experts here and on the mainland called the court's leave-no-trace-behind policy astonishing, though at least a few other states, including California, engage in the practice.

"It sounds unbelievable," University of Hawaii law professor Randy Roth said. "I think it's a terrible idea."

Despite the fact that the practice is seldom used in Hawaii, it benefits mostly the wealthy, who often don't want others to know the extent of their riches or don't want business competitors to learn trade secrets or other sensitive information.

"A lot of these people have big money and don't want people to know how big it is," said Brad Coates, senior partner for Coates & Frey, Hawaii's largest family law firm.

For simple divorces, lawyers may charge only a few hundred dollars to file a motion requesting super-secret status, but the cost typically rises with the complexity of the case.

The folks who aren't wealthy often lack or are reluctant to spend the money to seek confidentiality or care little about such secrecy.

"Not everybody has the horsepower to file these motions," Coates said.

As a result, such practices tend to underscore the common perception that the rich and powerful have a separate system of justice, one that most people don't have equal access to.

"That's a legitimate concern," said Tom Stirling, who has practiced family law for more than 30 years in Hawaii.

There are also concerns that court rules may be more loosely applied if a case is sealed or that a judge may demonstrate favoritism toward one party. After all, no one from the outside can monitor what goes on under seal, although any decision of the judge can be reviewed later on appeal if abuse is suspected.

Houston attorney J. Lindsey Short, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, said in his 35 years of practicing family law, he's never heard of a sealed divorce case being completely stricken from the public record.

"That's very wrong," Short said. "I can't imagine that practice becoming a trend in any way, shape or form anywhere in this country."

Donald Schiller, former chairman of the American Bar Association's family law section and head of the nation's largest matrimonial law firm, Chicago-based Schiller DuCanto and Fleck, said there are legitimate reasons for sealing cases, particularly with increasing concerns today about personal safety, identity theft and the like.

Divorce records typically contain Social Security numbers, home addresses, bank account data and other sensitive information that, in the wrong hands, can be used to cause harm.

But Schiller, like other experts, said there are ways to safeguard sensitive information without completely shutting out the public. "To just take the case out of the system seems to go beyond appropriate protections," he said.

Marsha Kitagawa, a Hawaii State Judiciary spokeswoman, said divorce cases here are rarely sealed. Only four of 5,647 filed statewide in the 12-month period through June were sealed.

Kitagawa said the Judiciary strives to achieve an equitable balance between providing public access to records and safeguarding citizens' privacy and safety.

"Generally court records, including divorces, are presumed to be open to the public," she said in a written statement. "However, neither Hawaii state statutes nor our constitution guarantee open access to all court records."

Case numbers and parties' names in all sealed files and cases that are confidential by law, such as adoptions, are not available on the Judiciary's public-access database system, Kitagawa said. "This is a long-standing practice based on a decision to 'err on the side of caution' in dealing with the advent of instant and widespread electronic access to court records," she wrote.

Judges have substantial discretion in deciding whether to seal a case. They could seal all of it, part of it or nothing at all. At the hearings to debate such matters, though, no one typically is there to argue the public's right to know.

Unlike the practice in many other states, divorce proceedings here, even for cases that aren't sealed, are closed to the public, personnel tell people at the Honolulu Family Court, where hearings are held. The court administration, however, told the Star-Bulletin that proceedings aren't closed to the public but noted that the courtrooms are small.

In the Jones, Masini and Schutter cases, the Star-Bulletin couldn't determine the reasons those files were sealed because, like everything else in them, the judges' orders were not part of the public record.

Jones, the lawyer for Diane K. Jones and a representative for Schutter did not respond to requests for comment, and Al Masini could not be reached.

April Masini said she didn't know the reasons cited for sealing her case. While noting her marriage to Al Masini ended amicably, she said, "Our divorce and its terms had nothing whatsoever to do with anyone else and is absolutely no one else's business."

Given the wide discretion Family Court judges have, some cases have been sealed primarily because a spouse was a high-profile member of the community, several lawyers said.

But Kitagawa disputed that notion. "Judicial determinations on whether an individual's safety and right to privacy outweighs the public's right to know are made on a case-by-case basis based upon the arguments and evidence presented by the parties and not upon the parties' income or celebrity," she said.

Almost all the Hawaii divorce attorneys contacted for this column said they were unaware of the court's purge-the-public-record policy until questioned by the Star-Bulletin. Some said they couldn't think of any legitimate reason to justify the policy.

P. Gregory Frey, chairman of the Hawaii State Bar Association's family law section, said he plans to look into how the practice came about and whether it can be changed.

Kitagawa said the Judiciary currently is working on a proposed policy governing public access to paper and electronic records. The public will be invited to comment once the draft policy is developed, she said.

In this regard, though, the Judiciary's charge already should be clear. It should rescind any policy that completely removes divorce cases from the public record. At the least, the public should have access to basic information, just like they do in most states.

And to address safety and identity-theft concerns, sensitive data should be sealed automatically in all divorce cases. It shouldn't matter whether one is rich or poor to benefit from such basic protections.

http://starbulletin.com/2002/08/25/news/perez.html

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March 21, 2002

Jones asks judge to be lenient with Sia

By Jim Dooley, Advertiser Staff Writer

University of Hawai'i football coach June Jones has asked a federal judge for leniency on behalf of financier Sukamto Sia, suggesting that Sia could give "instructional lectures" at UH as part of his rehabilitation instead of serving prison time for bank fraud.

In a Feb. 13 letter to U.S. District Court Judge David Ezra, Jones called Sia "one of the most wonderful persons I have associated myself with since returning to Hawai'i" and said he has known Sia for about a year, becoming "very good friends" over that time.

When he heard about Sia's legal troubles, "it made me feel sick to my stomach," Jones wrote.

Sia will appear before Ezra today for sentencing on bankruptcy and wire fraud convictions. He faces up to 40 months in federal prison and fines of $1.5 million. Earlier this month, his bail was revoked after his involvement in a domestic disturbance in Los Angeles on Feb. 13.

On Tuesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Lloyd King found Sia in contempt of court for repeatedly failing to produce financial records to his creditors.

King threatened to notify Ezra of the contempt ruling, then said he may order Sia jailed after he finishes serving whatever sentence Ezra hands down today in the criminal case.

Jones declined to discuss the letter he wrote on Sia's behalf, saying it was "a private letter to the judge."

Asked if the bail revocation or contempt ruling have changed his attitude toward Sia, Jones said, "No, nothing's changed." Jones said he didn't wish to elaborate. "The letter speaks for itself," he said.

Written on UH stationery, Jones' letter referred to Sia as "SS," and said Sia "could be a great asset to the University of Hawai'i by giving instructional lectures to our students. I make this suggestion as part of a rehabilitation sentence, in lieu of custody time."

Jones also noted that Sia has been involved helping young business people.

"In the past, he has held seminars and roundtable business discussions, devoting many hours of his time in open forum to help them and guide them toward achieving success in life," he said.

Numerous other friends and associates of Sia also wrote letters of support to Ezra.

Sia, 41, is a developer, financier and former owner of the Bank of Honolulu, which was seized by federal regulators in October 2000. As part of a plea agreement in the criminal case, Sia admitted defrauding the bank by obtaining illegal loans that went to companies he controlled.

He also admitted improperly cashing two state of Hawai'i tax refund checks worth $757,000 and using some of the proceeds to gamble in Las Vegas and to buy his girlfriend, Kelly Randall, a pair of diamond earrings worth $325,000.

More than a dozen other criminal counts against Sia were dropped in return for his guilty plea.

Sia's lawyers have argued to Ezra that Sia's financial problems were caused in part by a severe gambling addiction that led to losses of tens of millions of dollars at casinos around the world.

He was arrested by Las Vegas authorities in 1998 on charges he wrote bad checks to cover some $8 million in gambling debts. Those charges were later dropped after he agreed to repay the money.

The domestic disturbance incident last month occurred at a mansion in Bel Air, Calif., that Sia shares with Randall. Randall at one time was also charged in the federal court case, but prosecutors agreed to drop those charges in return for Sia's guilty plea.

Police said Randall initially told them Sia slapped her three or four times but she later said the accusation was a lie.

Ezra, in revoking Sia's bail, said it wasn't because of the domestic battery allegations but because Sia lied to police officers when he told them that he'd never been arrested before and that an electronic monitoring device attached to his wrist was a watch.

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February 23, 2001

Lead coverage for June Jones crash

The investigations of the Navy submarine collision with the maritime training trawler Ehime Maru and of the crash of two Army helicopters on an Oahu training mission, both stories of sufficient import to command national interest, were bumped from the lead position in Hawaii media this week by a one-car crash -- because the lone occupant of the car was June Jones.

Jones was alone in his car when it veered off Honolulu's main expressway late Thursday morning and slammed into a concrete pillar. Police and fire officials found no evidence that he was wearing his seat belt and no evidence that the car braked after leaving the road.

What kept it from being just another traffic accident was that Jones is a symbol for rebirth in a state that is trying to come back from a long economic recession while dealing with feelings of inadequacy in attracting business investment that is not related to tourism.

Jones, who had coached the San Diego Chargers and the Atlanta Falcons, and who coached at the University of Hawaii in the early 1970s, returned to UH was head coach of the Rainbow Warriors (now simply the Warriors) in 1999. The team turned around so quickly and thoroughly that Jones was named Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, but beyond that he became a symbol of turnaround for an entire state.

That's why the Honolulu Star-Bulletin's biggest headline Thursday afternoon was "Junes Jones critically hurt" and the Friday morning headline in the Honolulu Advertiser was "Coach critical but stable." The top-rated television newscast, on KHON, featured two reporters at Queen's Medical Center, one to report on the coach's condition and the other to report on all the people who came to stand vigil.

"He has had such a positive influence on our student athletes, our people and our state," Gov. Ben Cayetano said in a statement intended to express concern for the coach but which also provided a clear explanation of the importance of the accident. The governor learned of the accident while flying to the U.S. mainland for the winter meeting of the National Governors Conference.

www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2001/02/19/daily48.html

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June Jones is expected to testify regarding his business, professional, personal and political relationships with Sukamto Sia, Diane Plotts, Larry Price, James B. Nicholson, Rockne Freitas, Arnold Morgado, Ron Rewald, Kazu Hayashida, Barron Hilton, Lamar Hunt, Ken Starr, James Baker III, Brent Wilkes, Steven Jay Katzman, Joshua Gotbaum, Robert Fishman, Linda Lingle, Bob Awana, Jared Jossem (Torkildson, Katz...), John Waihee (Verner Liipfert Bernhard McPherson Hand), Renton Nip, Jack Abramoff, Daniel Akaka, Dan Inouye, Neil Abercrombie, Mary Lou Woo, Steven Guttman, Cecil Santos, Charles Ching, Gayle Lau, Constance Lau, Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate, Nathan Aipa, Colleen Wong, Louanne Kam, Earl Anzai, Lyn Anzai, Henry Peters, Richard Wong, Jeff Stone, William S. Richardson, Gilbert Tam, Robert Kihune, Dee Jay Mailer, Edwina Clarke, Terrance W.H. Tom, Judge Robert Faris, Judge Kevin Chang, Judge David Ezra, Judge Barry Kurren, Faye Kurren, The Nature Conservancy, The Peregrine Fund, Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), Haunani Apoliona, Oswald Stender, Guido Giacometti, Susan Tius, Peter Savio, Marsh & McLennan, Aon Risk Managers, Federal Insurance Co. (Chubb Group), Judith Neustader Fuqua, Corbert A.K. Kalama, First Hawaiian Bank, Bert T. Kobayashi, Jr., Benjamin Matsubara, Watanabe Ing & Kawashima, Alexander & Baldwin, Cutter Management Co., Ernest H. Fukeda, Jr., Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, Catholic Charities, Michael Chun, GGP (General Growth Partners) Ala Moana, Wesley Manor, Inc., Robin Campaniano, Sheraton Hotel Corp., Senator Colleen Hanabusa, Senator Gary Hooser, Steve Case, Hawaii Superferry, Kenneth Conklin, PhD, David Farmer, Judge Lloyd King, Ben Cayetano, Evan Dobelle, Randy Roth, Judge Karen Radius, Clyde Matsui, and other entities to be named upon discovery.