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Mike Gabbard's Relationship to former senator Rick Reed
Senator Mike Gabbard was a staffer for
Richard Jay Reed during his 1990 reelection campaign where Reed was
criticised for representing views on abortion and gay
rights suspected to be based on Butler's teachings.
After Honolulu Weekly staffer Derek Ferrar reported on
these
connections between Reed, Gabbard and Butler, in an Aug.
12, 1992,
story titled "Rick Reed's Inner Self:' nearly 7,000
newspapers
disappeared
from the racks in many locations.
Under scrutiny Gabbard, Butler and Reed denied any connection and Gabbard began to distance himself from Reed to ensure his own political future.
When questioned about his history with Reed Mike Gabbard has been typically evasive, describing Reed as a friend but condemning his actions. Mike Gabbard has not publically commented about the relationship since this admission by Reed was made.
In a eulogy delivered at Chuck Marsland's Memorial service on
30th April 2007 Rick Reed referred to Chris Butler as "my
spiritual teacher" and alluded to the comfort of eternal
nature of the soul as preached by Butler.
This public admission by Rick Reed should serve to end any doubt that the allegations related to him being a follower of Chris Butler were accurate and cast serious
doubt on his time with the prosecutors office and
actions as state senator. Not only did he use his
position to aim suspicion of involvement in organised
crime away from Science of Identity's questionable
activities but also obtained documents to used to slander a
political opponent.
As aide to
Honolulu City Prosecutor Chuck Marsland Reed made claims that
Larry Mehau, a Big Island rancher with a strong interest
in the Democratic Party was the "godfather" of Hawaii's
organised crime - although Marsland himself never made
any such claims. No allegations were ever proven against
Mehau.
Marsland was a staunch opponent of organised crime
following the murder of his son.
When Reed's former wife Carter exposed through the media
that she had been present when Butler had given the
order to Reed to use records of a dismissed incident
against opponent for reelection, illegally obtained
through his position with the Prosecutor's Office, attention was focussed on SoI
involvement in politics, although no charges were
bought. It helped that Rick Reed, who was initiated
Krishna das, denied any relationship with Chris Butler
and the Science of Identity.
Excerpt of Eulogy for Chuck Marsland...
"...In our conversations over the years it was obvious
that Chuck had
experienced a remarkable transition from one who felt
the burden of
needing to avenge his son's death personally, to
allowing justice to
be served within the criminal justice system, to
achieving the peace
that comes with the understanding that there is a higher
power—a
Supreme Being who is unconditionally loving yet not
about to allow
those who harm innocent people to go unpunished.
Chuck knew that I had great respect for my spiritual
teacher, Jagad
Guru Siddhaswarup Ananda, and, shortly after he became
Prosecuting
Attorney, Chuck asked me to arrange a meeting between
the two men.
They met only once and never conversed again, but Chuck
told me he
came away from that meeting with a newfound peace. He
said he left
that meeting confident that although Chuckers had
experienced the
death of his body, the person Chuck knew and loved as
his son had not
ceased to exist and was in good hands.
This understanding is a universal truth that has been
taught through
the ages by sages and spiritual teachers of all
religious persuasions.
I know that Polly and all of us who had the pleasure of
knowing Chuck
can find solace in the knowledge that although his body
has worn out,
and he has moved on, the person we knew and loved as
Chuck Marsland
continues to exist and is in good hands."
Eulogy—Charles F. Marsland, Jr.
Rick Reed
April 30, 2007
Honolulu, Hawaii…Central Union Church
The Chuck Marsland I knew loved Hawaii and BRISTLED at any questioning of his “local” credentials.
He was the great grandson of Norwegian immigrants to the Islands—a third generation kamaaina--born Charles F. Marsland Jr. on April 11, 1923 in Honolulu. Chuck passed away on April 11th –his 84th birthday.
Chuck was the only child of Charles and Sadie Marsland—his Mother called him “Boy” her entire life. Sadie would call the Prosecutor’s Office and typically ask Chuck’s secretary, “Where’s Boy?” The secretary had instructions from Chuck to put through Sadie’s call no matter what he was doing. He lavished Sadie with the type of attention and love that any Mother would envy.
Chuck was graduated from Punahou in 1940. He attended UH and then Tufts University in Massachusetts until his college education was interrupted by WWII.
Polly Grigg, the love of Chuck’s life—and his loyal companion of 40 years—sent me a copy of his resume. Detailing his duties in the Navy from 1942 to 1947, Chuck wrote, “I was one of those commissioned out of the Tufts University NROTC and was assigned to an LCI landing craft as Executive Officer and C.O. We were exclusively in the Pacific Theatre and participated in several invasions and other operations.”
With the War over, Chuck returned to Massachusetts to obtain a degree in law, and then joined the Attorney General’s Office, Criminal Division.
Chuck had a great sense of humor; usually irreverent—often self-effacing. He liked to tell about his own social blunders. One such gaff was while Chuck was an assistant attorney general in Massachusetts. For some reason, Chuck and other lawyers in the Criminal Division of the office had an audience with the Bishop. Unfortunately for Chuck and the Bishop, he was the first deputy attorney general to be introduced.
Chuck had a handshake that should have come with a warning. Of course, the Bishop didn’t know that—and wasn’t expecting a handshake at all. But when the Bishop held out his hand for Chuck to kiss his ring, Marsland instead gave him one of his crushing handshakes.
Chuck had married in Massachusetts, and when the marriage broke up, he returned home to Hawaii in December 1966. With Chuck was his pride and joy, his son “Chuckers.” Chuck told me he had wanted Chuckers to grow up as he had—with sand between his toes.
While Chuckers learned to surf and excel at athletics—Pepperdine University had given the young, tall and lanky Marsland a volleyball scholarship—Chuck was happy to be back home, practicing law in the Islands he loved. He spent three years as a trust officer with First Hawaiian Bank; a year as Deputy Attorney General, and then five years as Deputy Corporation Counsel for the City and County of Honolulu.
And then, tragedy. In 1975, at the age of 19, Chuckers was shot to death by organized crime figures. Devastated, Chuck became obsessed with avenging his son’s death. He carried a gun. He walked the streets of Waikiki where Chuckers had worked. He talked to anyone and everyone who might have a piece of the puzzle.
Within weeks, Chuck knew the names of the three men involved in the murder of Chuckers. He pondered the best way to kill them. How could he gun down three men and get away with it?
Eventually, fortunately, Chuck came up with a better plan. He put away his gun and, in 1976, joined the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office. Two years later, Chuck was appointed Director of the first Career Criminal Unit in the State of Hawaii. But his uncompromising style and outspokenness clashed with the appointed Prosecuting Attorney—and Chuck was fired.
Marsland was not the kind of man most Mayors would appoint to be the City’s Prosecuting Attorney. Marsland could not be trusted to remain quiet and subservient. So, most Oahu residents would never have heard of Chuck Marsland had it not been for a twist of fate served up by the Honolulu City Council.
In 1979, Chuck was ecstatic to learn that for the first time in Honolulu’s history, the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney was to become an elective office. Beginning in 1980, the people of the City and County of Honolulu—not the Mayor—would select the Prosecuting Attorney.
I was on Maui. I owned a small newspaper called “The Valley Isle.” I had been sued by Larry Mehau for newspaper interviews I published alleging that he was the “godfather” of the local organized crime syndicate. One day in ’79 I got a phone call from a stranger.
The stranger identified himself as Chuck Marsland. He said he was a fan of my Valley Isle newspaper, and that he had been impressed with the Wayne Nishiki for Lt. Governor campaign that I had orchestrated the year before.
Marsland asked if I would come to Oahu and meet with him. When I asked why, he said, “We have enemies in common.”
I was reluctant to fly to Oahu to meet with a complete stranger and it didn’t help that he said he’d be waiting for me at a Cemetery. But, even over the phone, I could tell there was something special—and certainly genuine—about this man. I agreed to meet with him.
At Punchbowl Cemetery the next day, beside Chucker’s grave, Chuck told me everything he knew about his son’s murder. He said he was going to run for the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney to go after those responsible. Although we had just met, Chuck and I instinctively trusted each other and clicked in a way that most around us in the years to come didn’t fully understand. When he asked if I’d move to Oahu and run his campaign for the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, I said yes.
Later, when I knew him better, I asked Chuck about the men who killed Chuckers. I asked, “Would you really have shot them if you could have gotten away with it?” He said, “No.” Then, “I would have used my bare hands.”
Chuck’s response provided a glimpse into the extraordinary pain and anger he experienced when his son was murdered.
His response also underscores just how remarkable it was that Chuck was able to turn such a painful tragedy into such a positive thing for the people of Hawaii.
Some political writers have described Chuck Marsland as a “one-dimensional” politician. That’s not really accurate. Chuck was fully capable of becoming familiar with the myriad of issues that, say, gubernatorial candidates must articulate. But the crime-fighting “dimension” of Chuck’s personality was certainly dominant.
We all have our own dominant personality traits and Chuck Marsland was, at his core, a fighter, a warrior.
The silver lining in the cloud that befell Chuck the day his son died was that his life from that moment took on real meaning and purpose. As devastating as it was, the death of his son altered Chuck’s life in a positive way. All of a sudden, Marsland’s warrior nature was in harmony with his life’s purpose.
Organized crime had messed with the wrong guy.
As we wrote in the Marsland for Prosecutor campaign brochure in 1980, “Once in a great while, a public Office and a candidate match perfectly.”
In a TV ad we produced in his successful campaign for re-election four years later, Chuck explained his motivation in his own words. He said:
“If you sometimes wonder why I take our crime problem so seriously, let me share this with you: I’ve been there.
“I’ve watched the anguish, shame and loathing play across the face of a rape victim.
“I’ve seen the terror and feeling of betrayal in the eyes of a child who has been abused.
“And I’ve known the agony of being a member of the victim’s family.
“I’m doing everything within my power to see that no one of you suffers a similar experience.”
I was talking to Polly Grigg this past weekend, again, about Chuck. I was expressing my thoughts about how the agony Chuck experienced had made him more compassionate toward others; more able to empathize with the victims of crime. Polly agreed, and said that Chuck’s experiencing such deep pain made him sensitive to the pain of others; made him a more thoughtful, caring person, determined to do whatever he could to prevent others from experiencing the pain and agony he had experienced.
Although I don’t agree that Chuck Marsland was “one dimensional”, I’ll concede that he was not a good politician. He had never considered running for office before his son was killed. He didn’t think like a politician. He wasn’t careful about what he said or how he said it. He wasn’t good at talking around a question without answering it. All he knew how to do was tell the truth—as he said, “Flat out!”
Early on in my relationship with Chuck, some people would caution him about me. “Reed is reckless”, they’d say. “He’ll get you in trouble.”
Chuck would delight in recounting those conversations to me because he and I knew that the opposite was true. We knew I was a moderating influence for Chuck. Countless times, Chuck would call me into his office. He was angry. A judge had thrown out a double murder conviction or a political foe had attacked the Prosecutor’s Office.
“Here’s what I want you to release to the newspapers” Chuck would say to me. And he’d rattle off a very heavy response.
Often, I’d feel compelled to say, “Gee, Chuck…I don’t think you oughta say it like that…”
“Oh, yeah?” He’d say. “How do you think I should say it?”
So I’d come up with a more diplomatic way of making the same point.
He’d usually say something like, “Alright” with a tone of disgusted resignation, “send it in like that.”
More often than not, as I turned to leave his office, Chuck would say, “Chicken.”
Of course, there were many times when my more diplomatic versions were rejected. In truth, I believe Chuck Marsland was able to turn Hawaii’s criminal justice system upside down and deal organized crime a fatal blow precisely because he didn’t give a damn if those in power in Hawaii liked what he said or not. He didn’t care if judges were outraged at his disrespectful comments; he didn’t care if the editorial writers didn’t appreciate his style; and he certainly didn’t care if career politicians found him threatening. The fight against crime was REAL to Chuck Marsland—and nothing and no one could make him back down.
Chuck loved the deputy prosecutors and investigators who served under him. And there was nothing he wouldn’t have done for them. Shortly after his election, a young deputy prosecutor had just given birth, and she was torn between staying home with her newborn son and coming back to work. In typical Marsland fashion, he solved the problem. The deputy came back to work and started handling cases and meeting with police officers with her baby in a playpen beside her desk.
Like many strong-willed men, Chuck was not easy to live with. He and his sweetheart, Polly Grigg, were companions for more than four decades but never married. Polly has told me, if she and Chuck had married she probably would have divorced him at least 15 times.
Chuck was in many ways extraordinarily generous. His backyard was full of avocados, mangoes, kalamandans, Kona oranges and bananas. Chuck would show up at my door with more fruit than I knew what to do with.
He loved to scuba dive and was quite accomplished at Karate. He grew gorgeous orchids in a small greenhouse beside the house.
Chuck and Polly both had a penchant for rescuing flawed dogs from the pound. Polly got a French poodle from the pound and named him Honri. Of course, calling a dog “Honri”-- even if it was a French poodle—was not something Chuck could go along with. So he called Honri “Stinky.” And that was the name that stuck.
Just as I was sometimes surprised by how heavy Chuck could be when talking about criminals, I was also surprised to hear him BABY TALK his beloved dogs. One Sunday afternoon, I walked into Chuck’s kitchen and found him cooking a meal for Stinky: chicken, broccoli, carrots and, of course, brown rice. Stinky wouldn’t eat white rice.
Even though I left Hawaii a long time ago, I’ve had the pleasure of maintaining contact with Chuck. My phone calls were always greeted with a “Hey Bud! How you doin’?” And “When are you movin’ back?” When Jennifer and I returned with our son to live on Oahu for a couple years recently, Polly would call and say, “Chuck wants to go for ride. He wants to know if you could use some mangoes.”
In our conversations over the years, it was obvious that Chuck had experienced a remarkable transition from one who felt the burden of needing to avenge his son’s death personally—to allowing justice to be served within the criminal justice system—to achieving the peace that comes with the understanding that there is a higher power; a Supreme Being Who is unconditionally loving yet not about to allow those who harm innocent people to go unpunished.
Chuck knew that I had great respect for my spiritual teacher, Jagad Guru Siddhaswarup Ananda, and, shortly after he became Prosecuting Attorney, Chuck asked me to arrange a meeting between the two men. They met only once and never conversed again, but Chuck told me he came away from that meeting with a newfound peace. He said he left that meeting confident that although Chuckers had experienced the death of his body, the person Chuck knew and loved as his son had not ceased to exist and was in good hands.
This understanding is a universal truth that has been taught through the ages by sages and spiritual teachers of all religious persuasions.
I know that Polly and all of us who had the pleasure of knowing Chuck can find solace in the knowledge that although his body has worn out, and he has moved on, the person we knew and loved as Chuck Marsland continues to exist and is in good hands.
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Funeral Monday for Former Prosecutor Marsland
"Funeral services for former Honolulu prosecutor Charles F. "Chuck" Marsland Jr. will be Monday at Central Union Church."
The Honolulu Advertiser - April 35, 2007
Chipped Rice Productions - Rick Reed's business
This site contains a video tribute to Chuck Marsland "Aloha, Chuck", and a visit Rick Reed made to the Phillipines last year, where Science of Identity have a large following under the organisation Chaitanya Mission consisting of SIF members. There is also a story of Sudama Vipra "The Gift", when he offered a bag of chipped rice to Lord Krishna which can be read in the last volume of a set of books by Chris Butler's guru, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta swami, entitled Krishna.
chippedrice.com
Domain Name for Chipped Rice
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax -- (480) 624-2599
click here
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Contact Information for Chipped Rice Productions
Jennifer Reed
8807 131st Avenue SE
Snohomish, WA 8209
Email:jennifer@chippedrice.com
(425) 210-0365 Fax -- (360) 862-1796
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