A woman arrested on Mauna Kea Access Road two consecutive nights last month said her motives have been misunderstood and she intended no disrespect to those attempting to stop the building of the Thirty Meter Telescope on the mountain.
“My intent was to test the system, to give energy to the kiai (guards) and to pay my respects to the gods up there,” Cynthia Lahilahi Verschuur, also known as Cynthia Verschuur Marlin, told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald on Aug. 13. “… I want the protectors, especially Lanakila Mangauil, to know that I’m deeply sorry for my actions that created a disturbance up on the mountain. I’m deeply sorry for breaking kapu aloha.”
Verschuur is accused of criminal property damage for allegedly ramming into a state truck at the checkpoint near the Visitor Information Station just after midnight July 12 and of disorderly conduct and open lewdness for allegedly taking off her clothes and creating a disturbance near the same spot the night of July 13.
The TMT protesters, who call themselves protectors of the mountain, moved to distance themselves from Verschuur after the second incident.
“I didn’t realize that until after I got out of jail. So I had three weeks to kind of sit on what had happened and reflect on it,” she said. “… The one entity that I’ve not spoken to since I’ve been out is the kiai on Mauna Kea. And I’m very confused about how I stand with them.”
Verschuur said Mauna Kea rangers overreacted when she drove toward their checkpoint on July 12.
“I was basically saying, ‘I need help. S.O.S. Save our ship.’ I was flashing it … with my (head)lights,” she said. “Apparently, no one knew Morse Code, that I was looking for help. So, as soon as they didn’t understand who I was or what my intent was, they immediately went into maximum-security fear mode. And that is the biggest mistake that happened up there. They treated me as an unknown criminal rather than a sorry white girl who needed help.”
Verschuur said the collision did no actual damage to the state truck, and added her own car was damaged after a woman ranger punched out the driver’s side window. She was then pulled out of the car, she said, thrown “down in the broken glass” and handcuffed.
Verschuur said after she posted bail and retrieved her car, it was stolen from the side of Highway 130 near Uncle Robert’s in Kalapana. She then hitchhiked up the mountain on July 13, she said, but doesn’t remember causing a disturbance or removing her clothes.
“I was not naked in any disrespectful, disgraceful way,” she said. “The definition of lewdness is ‘inciting sexual response that is morally improper.’ And I never had anything on my mind about trying to get a sexual response from anyone. … One of the definitions of naked is ‘without microscope or telescope.’ And I thought that was interesting. Mauna Kea needs to be naked.”
Verschuur, who has been diagnosed as bipolar disorder, was jailed following a courtroom outburst on July 14 — technically with bail, but also with a no-release caveat — after Hilo District Judge Harry Freitas ordered her held for a mental examination. She was released from custody on Aug. 3, but her mental examination is still pending.
Verschuur is scheduled for a court hearing at 9 a.m. Thursday in Waimea, and said she’ll plead not guilty to all charges. She no longer has legal representation and is seeking a pro bono lawyer to take her case, and perhaps an unlawful imprisonment lawsuit she is considering filing against the state.
Verschuur has applied for citizenship in an entity calling itself the Hawaiian Kingdom, and said she would like to be represented by University of Hawaii at Manoa law professor Williamson Chang, a Hawaiian sovereignty advocate, or one of his former students of similar beliefs.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.