§351-14 Hearings and evidence. For those applications that will be heard by the commission, the applicant and the commission's legal adviser shall be entitled to appear and be heard. Any other person may appear and be heard who satisfies the commission that the person has a substantial interest in the proceedings. In any case in which the person entitled to make an application is a child, the application may be made on the child's behalf by any person acting as the child's parent or guardian. In any case in which the person entitled to make an application is mentally defective, the application may be made on the person's behalf by the person's guardian or any other individual authorized to administer the person's estate.
Where, under this chapter, any person is entitled to appear and be heard by the commission, that person may appear in person or be represented by the person's attorney. All hearings shall be open to the public, unless in a particular case, the commission determines that the hearing, or a portion thereof, should be held in private, because the offender has not been convicted or in the interest of the victim of an alleged sexual offense.
Every person appearing under this section shall have the right to produce evidence and to cross-examine witnesses. The commission may receive in evidence any statement, document, information, or matter that, in the opinion of the commission, may contribute to its functions under this chapter, whether or not the statement, document, information, or matter would be admissible in a court of law.
If any person has been convicted of any offense with respect to an act or omission on which a claim under this chapter is based, proof of that conviction, unless an appeal against the conviction or a petition for a rehearing in respect of the charge is pending or a new trial or rehearing has been ordered, shall be taken as conclusive evidence that the offense has been committed. [L 1967, c 226, pt of §1; HRS §351-14; gen ch 1985; am L 1993, c 219, §2]
Case Notes
Applicability of the administrative procedure act. 54 H. 294, 506 P.2d 444 (1973).