Eamonn de Carolan, 18, and Orion Macomber, 19, accused of attacking gay campers at Polihale Beach Park May 26, remain in the Kaua’i Community Correctional Center in lieu of $250,000 bail while de Carolan’s mother tries to raise money in
Eamonn de Carolan, 18, and Orion Macomber, 19, accused of attacking gay campers at Polihale Beach Park May 26, remain in the Kaua’i Community Correctional Center in lieu of $250,000 bail while de Carolan’s mother tries to raise money in cyberspace for his defense.
The defendants, charged with attempted murder and terroristic threatening, are slated to make their first appearance in Fifth Circuit Court in Lihu’e June 19. They will enter their pleas that morning.
Kaua’i County chief deputy prosecutor Craig De Costa said he couldn’t comment on whether plea bargain negotiations had begun with either defendant.
But de Carolan’s mother is not waiting on the system. Nancy Carolan, who lives in Koloa, has started a Web site in an attempt to collect funds to help pay for her son’s bail and defense.
De Costa said he sees nothing illegal the Web site.
“The attorneys are forbidden to discuss the facts of the case in a way to cause publicity. But she (Carolan) has free speech rights,” De Costa said.
He added Wednesday that he had not looked at the Web site (www.geocities.com/helpeamonn).
“I think it’s legal. People do the fund-raising thing all the time. Remember the political trials of the ’60s. There’s nothing wrong with trying to defray legal costs,” said Peter Friedman, a noted Seattle, Wash. defense attorney who is not involved in the Kaua’i case.
The younger de Carolan was represented at his preliminary hearing by Mark R. Zenger, a well-known attorney, formerly of Kaua’i and now based on Oahu.
Carolan said her son’s spirits have improved recently since he was moved from a jail cell which she called “overcrowded.”
“Eamonn’s reading law books. He’s clean and sober and praying to a higher spirit to help him. He really wants to be out, but he knows he’s there for a higher purpose,” she said.
Carolan said she is helping her son “because I believe that God and the spirits want to give these boys a second chance.”
Macomber and de Carolan are accused of trying to set occupied tents on fire and of attacking a group of gay campers with sticks and driving recklessly in an occupied area.
The campers have testified in court that they were targeted by the defendants because of gay-pride flags around their campsite.
Zenger said at the defendants’ preliminary hearing June 1 that the most severe charge the two young men should be charged with is criminal property damage first, a class B felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.
Attempted murder carries a possible life sentence without parole.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
