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1987 return to files without examining it or transmitting it for
examination.
F. The Thompson Settlement Revised as Trial Approaches
Although Chicoine and Hallett ultimately recommended that
their test case clients accept respondent’s 20-percent settlement
offer, Kersting disagreed and replaced Chicoine and Hallett with
attorney Joe Alfred Izen, Jr. (Izen) in April 1988. Counsel on
both sides began to prepare for trial, which was scheduled for
January 1989 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In an order dated August 30, 1988, the Court granted
McWade’s motion to depose Kersting. In October 1988, while in
Honolulu for the Kersting deposition, DeCastro met McWade to
discuss the Thompson cases. DeCastro told McWade he wanted to
withdraw the Thompsons from the test case trial. DeCastro’s
reason for withdrawing the Thompsons was to avoid their having to
pay the fees and expenses of the trial and to enable them to take
the settlement they had already agreed to. McWade wanted to keep
Mr. Thompson as a party to the trial because he was a test case
petitioner who was represented by an attorney, DeCastro, who had
not been hired and paid by Kersting. From respondent’s
standpoint, there was also a benefit to having, as a party
witness, a participant in the Kersting program who was feuding
with Kersting and could be expected to testify against him.
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