(PNN) SEAL KILLER WORKED FOR PFLUEGER; JOB GAVE ACCESS TO CRIME SCENE

SEAL KILLER WORKED FOR PFLUEGER; JOB GAVE ACCESS TO CRIME SCENE

(PNN) -- Charles Vidinha, who was convicted last Friday of killing a pregnant monk seal May 21 at Pila'a Beach is or was an employee of Jimmy Pflueger and only had access to the area from which he fired the shots due to his employ, PNN has learned.

According to an area resident familiar with Vidinha, Pflueger’s operations and the area- who asked not to be identified due to fear if reprisals- Vidinha, 78, works with Gordon Rosa, Pflueger’s foreman and property manager.

The area above Pila`a Beach is closed to the public and sits behind locked gates with only Pflueger, his employees and area kuleana residents having the key.

Vidinha’s 90 day sentence and $25 “special assessment” has outraged many on Kaua`i for its leniency as evidenced by comments on news stories in local and Honolulu newspapers.

Many think Vidinha’s reported excuse- that “he intended to scare the seal away from the beach, not to kill it” according to his attorney federal public defender Alexander Silvert- is silly and are even more outraged that it was offered considering that monk seals can be spooked back into the ocean just by walking up to one.

Vidinha could have been jailed for one year and fined $50,000 for the federal offense.

According to a quote in the Honolulu Advertiser Bill Pickering, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration law enforcement agent-in-charge for Hawai`i said that "the defendant claims he was just trying to scare the seal because he wanted to go fishing and was just concerned the seal would eat the fish. We have nothing to refute that." in explaining the light sentence.

The paper also reported that “Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Silverberg, who prosecuted the case, said because Vidinha had never had trouble with the law before and is ‘broke ... living out of a car essentially homeless, a fine didn't seem to be consistent with justice.’”.

It is unclear if federal authorities knew of Vidinha’s employ with Pflueger or what form of compensation, if any, Vidinha received from Pflueger.

Pflueger is free pending trial on murder charges related to the Ka Loko Dam disaster that killed seven people in 2006 and is reportedly close to settling multiple lawsuits arising from the dam break.

Pila`a was the 2001 scene of a mudslide caused by Pflueger who paid a record federal fine under Clean Water Act in the case for despoiling the ocean and reef.