House committee advances three agricultural‑crime bills after hours of testimony including family calls for tougher enforcement

The House Committee on Agriculture & Food Systems moved forward three related measures aimed at strengthening enforcement and penalties for crimes against Hawaii agriculture after more than an hour of public testimony and panel responses.

Supporters, including ranchers and county prosecutors, urged creation of an agricultural enforcement unit and a task force and praised the Department of Law Enforcement's (DLE) proposed role in investigating agricultural crimes. Jared Bridal, deputy director for law enforcement, described how DLE would structure the unit, including an assistant chief as a division administrator overseeing investigators and patrol personnel and a statewide patrol component "to create multi‑county coverage," and said funding requests would cover supervision, facilities and vehicles.

Why it matters: ranchers and farm owners said agricultural theft, trespass and poaching cause repeated and sometimes severe financial and personal losses. Several testifiers linked the bills to the unsolved killing of rancher Duke Pia and asked for faster, better resourced state enforcement. The public defender’s office warned that parts of the proposed penalty increases raised constitutional concerns and urged the legislature to narrow or rework those provisions before they reach courts.

The bills advanced are: SB763 SD2 (establish an agricultural enforcement program within DLE and an ag enforcement special fund), SB1249 SD1 (an agricultural crime prevention program administered by Department of Agriculture with grants, education and administrative enforcement authorities) and SB1257 SD1 (create an agricultural crimes task force and define an "agricultural crime" offense to raise penalties for property crimes on agricultural property).

Key testimony and points

- Jared Bridal (Deputy Director for Law Enforcement) told the committee DLE envisions a statewide division with detectives and about 35–36 patrol officers to allow multi‑county coverage; he said the assistant chief would be the division administrator and the deputy director would retain overall oversight.

- Representatives of the Hawaii Farm Bureau and the Hawaii Cattlemen’s Council supported the package, citing a recent survey estimating more than $14 million in losses to farmers and ranchers and urging dedicated enforcement resources.

- Multiple ranchers and family members, including Austin Salcedo and Gina/Kalei Saucedo, provided graphic firsthand testimony about livestock killed by dogs and alleged poaching and pleaded for an enforcement presence on neighbor islands and the West Side.

- Sunny Gannon, deputy public defender, testified the office finds parts of SB1249 unconstitutional, particularly the elevation of repeated petty misdemeanors into felonies and unclear mixing of administrative and criminal penalties; Gannon warned those provisions could lead to immediate appeals and reduced prosecutorial efficacy if left unchanged.

- The Attorney General’s office and deputy attorneys general (Mark Tom and Kelsey Nagase at different measures) offered to work with the committee on statutory language to avoid constitutional issues and to ensure penalty changes are inserted into the correct criminal provisions rather than creating a standalone offense that could cause inconsistencies.

Committee action and next steps

For each bill the committee voted to create a house draft (HD1), set the effective date in committee drafts to July 1, 3000 for drafting purposes, make technical edits for clarity and style, and to forward the measures with amendments and appropriation notes in the committee report. Committee members signaled intent to work with the Attorney General’s Office to tighten criminal‑statute language before the measures reach the Judiciary committee.

What the record shows and limits

The record contains repeated requests from ranchers for DLE personnel and from the public defender and AG staff for statutory revisions. The committee did not adopt the public defender’s request on the floor but directed staff to work with the AG to prepare language for subsequent committees. Nothing in the hearing or the committee’s action created final law; the measures were passed out of this committee with amendments and will proceed to additional committees and votes.

Ending

Committee minutes and the committee report will record the technical amendments and appropriation requests the committee noted for each bill. The AG’s office and DLE agreed to continue drafting work so the bills that increase criminal penalties will be legally defensible if passed.