Opinion ID: 2574374
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The District Court's Order Granting Williams's Petition for Injunction

Text: The district court granted Williams's petition and filed the Order Granting Petition for Injunction Against Harassment against Aona. The district court found that Williams was more credible than Aona: THE COURT: I have considered the evidence that has been presented during the course of this hearing. I have considered all factual issues by the clear and convincing standard, and I have made determinations on issues of credibility and, indeed, this case turns on questions of credibility between Mr. Williams and Mr. Aona because there are no other percipient witnesses to what happened between the two gentlemen on June 30, 2007, at just before noon at the Honolulu Refuse Division Facility on Middle Street. Now, I have had during the course of this long hearing an opportunity to watch both sides while they were making their statements. I've thus been able observe their demeanor, behavior, listened to what they have said, how they have said it, facial expressions, body language, those kinds of things, and those all contribute to my ability to render a determination on the issue of credibility. Now, one thing I do note as reflected by my question to Mr. Aona is that during the course of his testimony, he did reference touching Mr. Williams not once, but two times in his initial testimony. Now, he endeavored to correct that in response to my questions by indicating that it was during the first time that there was any hint of any trouble that Mr. Aona said that Mr. Williams approached Mr. Aona that Mr. Aona put out his hand to maintain some distance with Mr. Williams and thus kept his hand, right hand on Mr. Williams's left shoulder for some time. But then, and it was during this morning's session, Mr. Williams indicated that, excuse me, Mr. Aona said that there was a further time when Mr. Williams came forward, got close again to him, Mr. Aona said that he put his hand on Mr. Williams'[s] shoulder just like was demonstrated earlier, and to me, that's an inconsistency in terms of what Mr. Aona says happened. It's, it was something that I took note of at that point and questioned Mr. Aona about it, but I don't feel comfortable in the way that Mr. Aona responded. And further, in the way in which Mr. Aona again proceeded with his testimony in comparison to the very clear and firm testimony, very straightforward testimony of Mr. Williams, all of this leads me to conclude that Mr. Williams'[s] version of events is more credible than that of Mr. Aona. As a result, the court found that Williams had established by clear and convincing evidence that Aona had harassed him according to the definition in Hawai'i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 604-10.5(a)(1) (1993 & Supp.2008) and that a temporary restraining order was warranted. [3] The order required Aona to not intentionally be within fifteen feet away of Williams at any time for three years. There was no separate distance requirement for the work site.