The county Board of Ethics on Wednesday dismissed a complaint against Prosecuting Attorney Kelden Waltjen by a group opposing vaccines, masks and other pandemic protocols who said Waltjen ignored their petitions and compilations of documents they assert prove their case.
Millicent Cummings, who’s stated she is director of Protectors United, a Facebook group, filed the complaint alleging Waltjen was in violation of the fair treatment and conflict of interest portions of the ethics code. She said she provided ample evidence that the emergency protocols implemented by the government were harming people’s health.
“This is an economic takeover, not a pandemic emergency,” she said. “People are dying.”
Despite the urgency of her petition to the prosecutor, “I haven’t been given a much as a courtesy call in these three months,” Cummings said.
Waltjen said his office didn’t ignore Cummings or the petition. In fact, he said, he assigned his chief investigator, Daniel Pang, to the case and Pang received and signed off on all the chain of custody documents presented.
Cummings and her group did meet with someone in the office, he said. With the caseload in the office, it’s not unusual that claims had not been addressed in the time between February and April, he said.
In addition, he said, most of the complaints in the petition were against federal officials, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is chief medical advisor to the President, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines, among others. To his knowledge, he doesn’t know that he’s even met any of the people who would cause him to have a conflict of interest, he said.
“I’d like to commend Ms Cummings for standing up for what she believes in,” Waltjen added. “This is what this country was founded upon.”
Waltjen said his office advised Cummings the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Honolulu was a better place to lodge her petition, as it appeared to be against federal, not state, officials. Cummings said she doesn’t remember being told that.
The county prosecutor added that his office generally deals with complaints forwarded from the Hawaii Police Department and the current situation is “rather unusual.”
“Complaints from members of the public are few and far in between,” he said.
Still, Waltjen said, his office has subsequently instituted a procedure for citizen complaints to ensure they are acknowledged in a timely manner.
The Board of Ethics seemed satisfied, unanimously dismissing the complaint in a finding of insufficient evidence.
“The motion is rejected by the Board of Ethics because we see no unfairness by the Prosecutor’s Office and secondly, we see no evidence that there is a conflict of interest by the prosecuting attorney,” said Chairman Larry Heintz.
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.