The Honorable Judge Leslie Kobayashi
US District Court
Honolulu, Hawaii
January 23, 2014
Your Honor,
As a result of the crime I committed, I have learned a great and lasting lesson, and will never allow myself to be involved with activities of this sort, or with people of this sort,ever again. I do not wish any more harm to come to my children and family than already has.
I take complete responsibility for my crime, and stand ready to accept whatever consequences that you, as the representative of the US judicial system, deem appropriate.
I have to live with the knowledge that I damaged my community through my actions and that now there are people who are afraid of me who trusted me completely before. I created a situation where my children, who used to trust me with their lives, lost that complete trust in me. I know that just being around me will make many people uncomfortable. I also have to live with the realization that many of the people Roger Christie sold marijuana to simply turned around and resold it on the street to make some money to support a harder drug habit; that he was doing this within sight of a public school, and that I supported that activity through my actions.
I have already paid deeply for my crime: in loss of personal respect from my community; in loss of income over the last three years (as a felon, our business, which is of a very public nature, has suffered markedly); and in anticipation of future damage to my family, who are more dear to me than my next breath.
My children had no knowledge of my actions before the fact, but were completely informed after the first law enforcement warrant service and search of my property. Since then, my wife Susanne and I have followed a policy of full and complete disclosure with the children; they have known at every step what was going on with our case (as much as we knew), and understood the possible consequences that await Susanne and I on sentencing day.
We’ve taught our children that if you lie, the one person who always knows is you, and that there is never anything that makes that worthwhile, or makes that feeling of shame go away. We’ve also taught them that if they make a mistake, it doesn’t mean they’re a bad person;it simply means they made a mistake, and need to do better next time.
Being arrested and facing up to the consequences sent us into a deep depression for the first year afterwards; but we soon realized that it was an opportunity in disguise.We’d been given a chance to do a lot more with our lives than just make some money and take care of our kids. Our criminal mistake focused us on our real mission in life, which is to share our knowledge of aquaponics (a water- and energy-efficient modern food production technology we are helping to develop), with those for whom it makes a difference.
We are working with hundreds of backyard aquaponics food growers, as well as scores of new commercial-scale food producers utilizing aquaponics. We gave the live courses and wrote the DIY manuals and CAD drawings that they built their aquaponics systems from. We provide ongoing technical support to them at no charge when they encounter difficulties.
We were the first in the world to obtain USDA Organic Certification and Food Safety Certification for aquaponics systems.We teach those techniques in all our courses and DIY materials. We developed a number of technical advances in aquaponics(in the six years we’ve been in operation) that make it possible for our students to be profitable in commercial production. We puteverything we knowin our printed materials and live courses, and do not hold anything back so as to make more money later with “consulting”.
Before our technology was available, it was quite difficult to make an aquaponics farm operate in the black; now at least twelve of our students (that we know of) are earning all of their living (plus employing workers) in this new field, and the number is growing daily.
In addition to our teaching business, we have a small producing aquaponics farm of our own in Honokaa, which grows vegetables and fish for sale to the local community. Our four children; Victor (18), Jack (12), Lucky (11), and Rose (8), plus our three hanai children Dakota Helfrich (18), Brandon Lorusso (18), and Angelo Gonzales (18) all work on the farm. It’s day-longhard work (for the adults), but it’s clean, honest hard work, in one of the most beautiful places on earth, the Hamakua coast. We have our own cows for milk and cheese for the family, and live a healthy and happy life.
We take care of our neighbors and extended ohana in the community whenever we have extra food from the farm, a little bit of extramoney, or a vehicle to share; because we always have enough for ourselves. We’ve been helped out so many times when we were in need by people with fewer resources than we had, that we feel it’s a natural part of life to always accept an opportunity to give back to our community.
I think I’ve said enough; I know your time is valuable. Our whole family has talked and planned about what might happen when we stand in the court on sentencing day. It has been the specter sitting at our kitchen table every day for the last three years. But you can’t really plan when you have no idea what’s going to happen.
Our worst nightmare was that the kids would have to go into CPS adoptions, and Susanne’s 88-year-old mother Isabelle would have to go into a care home. We were prepared to lose the farm and most of what we own, because we’ve known that was a possibility since we were arrested; but we’ve always been concerned about keeping our family together.
Fortunately, three years have passed, and our son Victor is now a strong and confident 18 year old adult. As a result of our publishing aquaponics books and DIY packages, we have somewhat of an independent income from this intellectual property that does not depend on our farm. If worst comes to worst, and Susanne and I both have to serve prison sentences at the same time, we know Victor won’t be able to keep the farm going by himself, but he can renta house and take care of his two brothers, sister, and grandmother Isabelle, who lives with us; so that the family can stay together. It would be a full time job for him, but we’ve talked with him and he’s willing to do it.
Thank you for your consideration. I trust you will see that I am no threat to the public welfare, or to society in general, and sentence me accordingly.
With warm Aloha,
Tim Mann