Anthony pleads guilty to assault

LIHU’E — Hawaiian activist Jim Anthony pleaded guilty in Circuit Court yesterday to assault and disorderly conduct charges for assaulting a woman at the Lihu’e Airport in 1998.

The assault occurred during an event marking the inaugural return flight of United Airlines to Kaua’i and at the height of the North Shore tour boat battle.

Circuit Judge George Masuoka sentenced Anthony to six months probation with six months suspended jail time.

Anthony entered his pleas yesterday as a jury was being selected for his trial on assault, harassment and disorderly charges.

Represented by O’ahu attorney Jack Schweigert, Anthony didn’t offer an explanation for entering his latest pleas, said Deputy Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho.

Dawn Dasson, vice chairperson of the O’ahu organization, Hawai’i Laieikawai, said the charges were brought against Anthony because he spoke out against commercial boating on the North Shore.

“It was politically motivated,” Dasson said after the hearing.

The three original charges arose from an incident connected with the North Shore boating controversy, in which Anthony played a key role.

Anthony was at the airport on June 10, 1998, with a group of anti-boating protesters who told disembarking United Airline passengers to get back on the plane and to go home.

At the airport, Anthony allegedly scuffled with at least one visitor industry representative, a witness said.

He then allegedly brushed past two women and injured one of them.

Earlier this year, Anthony pleaded no contest to the assault charge in a plea bargain agreement that resulted in the two charges being dropped.

He was to have been sentenced in February and faced a maximum sentence of one year in jail and/or a maximum fine of $2,000.

Anthony said he changed his mind and said he would go to court on all three charges.