Former Honolulu Prosecutor Charles Marsland Jr., an aggressive and outspoken crimefighter who regularly clashed with local politicians and judges, died Wednesday at his Hawai'i Kai home on his 84th birthday.

"Chuck brought a lot of issues to public light — pornography, murder, organized crime — and made the discussion of crime a No. 1 issue," said Keith Kaneshiro, a former Marsland deputy who succeeded Marsland as prosecutor.

"Chuck was genuinely interested in making Hawai'i a safer place to live," added Kaneshiro, who headed Marsland's organized crime strike force before running against, and defeating, his former boss in 1988.

Polly Grigg, Marsland's companion for 40 years, was at his side when he passed peacefully about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday after a long illness.

"He had a marvelous sense of humor, was a very caring person, enjoyed the ocean, especially Malaekahana Beach, and scuba diving," Grigg said. "He was a very different person than what people saw in politics."

"He confronted death the same way he lived his own life, which was on his own terms," said city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle, another former Marsland deputy. "He did not want to die in the hospital."

Kaneshiro said Marsland's high-profile style brought awareness and discussion to issues of crime and changed the landscape of local prosecution when Marsland was elected prosecutor in 1980.

A Punahou graduate and World War II veteran who served with the amphibious forces in the Pacific, Marsland returned to Hawai'i in 1967 with a degree in economics from Tufts University and a law degree from Northeastern University in Boston to work for First National Bank.

He was working for the City Corporation Counsel's Office, handling routine legal matters, when the event that changed him forever occurred on April 17, 1975.

That was the day his son, Charles F. "Chuckers" Marsland III, was murdered.

CRIMINAL FOCUS

Marsland transferred to the City Prosecutor's Office, devoting his life to the investigation and prosecution of criminals, particularly men believed to be involved in Hawai'i organized crime.

He was the deputy prosecutor in the 1978 retrial of reputed former underworld kingpin Wilford "Nappy" Pulawa and underworld figures Henry Huihui and Robert "Bobby" Wilson on charges of kidnapping and murdering gamblers, and suspected killers Lamont "Monte" Nery and Dennis "Fuzzy" Iha.

The case fell apart after a key witness, Roy Ryder, recanted earlier testimony implicating the defendants in the crime. Ryder, ironically, had been a student of Marsland's mother, a longtime teacher at Roosevelt High School.

"I was Chuck's bagboy in the state trial of Nappy Pulawa and his gang as well as Hawai'i's first murder-for-hire case, State v. Gaut and Lester, which resulted in Hawai'i's first conviction of murder for hire under the penal code," Carlisle recalled.

Marsland successfully prosecuted another alleged syndicate member, Vernon Reiger Sr., in 1979 for the rape and attempted murder of a 33-year-old McCully woman.

That trial brought out what became another recognized feature of Marsland's prosecutorial style: bitter criticism of judges who ruled against him. During the Reiger case, Marsland regularly exchanged harsh words with the presiding judge, Edwin Honda.

Marsland rose to head the prosecutor's career criminal unit but became embroiled in angry disputes with his boss, City Prosecutor Togo Nakagawa, who fired him in 1979 the day after an internal report Marsland wrote about "schisms" in the office was leaked to reporters.

A Republican, Marsland won election as prosecuting attorney in 1980, soundly defeating the Democratic candidate, Leland Spencer.

CHUCKERS' KILLER

In 1981, Marsland assisted in the federal prosecution of another local organized crime figure, Ronald Ching, on firearms charges.

Ching would later admit to murdering Chuckers Marsland and became a cooperating witness for Marsland's office in several cases. Ching's testimony was tainted by inconsistencies and lies, and those other cases fell apart.

Marsland's biggest clash with a judge and the judicial system came later in 1981 after Circuit Judge Harold Shintaku overturned a jury verdict that found another Hawai'i organized crime figure, Charles Kapela Stevens, guilty of the grisly 1978 murders of Patricia L. Stevens and Conrad Maesaka.

Marsland bitterly denounced the ruling and publicly questioned Shintaku's motives for the ruling.

More than 10 years later, after Shintaku died under mysterious circumstances in Las Vegas, Stevens admitted in federal court that he had bribed Shintaku during the double-murder trial. Stevens said that before the jury returned with its verdict, he met with Shintaku outside the court. The judge placed his hand on Stevens' back and said, " 'Everything will be all right,' " Stevens said in federal court.

After Stevens made those revelations, Marsland said he always believed that Shintaku's ruling "stunk, and I don't think I made any bones about it."

The ruling was "probably the most notorious single case of alleged judicial misconduct in Hawai'i," Marsland said in 1992.

"Chuck was a pioneer for those of us who have since followed in his footsteps," Carlisle said. "He was able to overcome the personal tragedy of the murder of his son to become one of Hawai'i's most effective lawmen. His efforts against organized crime in the state of Hawai'i has had a lasting effect that is still present even today."

Services are pending.

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com and Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.