Defense lawyers yesterday assailed the credibility of Dennis Tadio Jr., a prosecution witness in the Pali golf course murder trial, getting him to admit that he has trafficked in hundreds of pounds of crystal methamphetamine but has never been charged by federal authorities with those offenses.

Tadio gave damaging testimony about both defendants in the racketeering case, Rodney Joseph Jr. and Ethan "Malu" Motta, but defense lawyers accused him of making that information up to avoid a "lifetime in prison" for narcotics offenses.

Tadio said that in a meeting with Motta on the Big Island, Motta admitted involvement in the murders of two underworld rivals at the golf course in January 2004. Motta told Tadio that he was in danger of being convicted because he had worn a pair of latex gloves during the killings and had forgotten to throw them away before he was arrested by police, Tadio told the jury.

"He got arrested with the gloves in his pocket," Tadio said Motta told him.

Tadio also said that three days before the murders, Joseph told him that he was going to "take care of" Samoan members of a rival underworld group competing with the Joseph/Motta group for control of a "protection" racket providing security to illegal gambling games in Hawai'i.

Tadio also said he helped Joseph beat the operator of one of those games after they picked up the man from a Chinatown barbershop. The victim still had the barber's cloth draped over him when he left the shop and got into a car with Joseph and Tadio, the witness testified.

When Joseph began choking the man with his seat belt, Tadio began punching him, Tadio said.

After the victim ran from the car, he left behind a piece of paper with numbers on it that Joseph said showed the breakdown of expenses of the man's gambling business, according to Tadio.

The paper showed that Joseph and Motta were to receive $8,000 each per month, security supervisors $4,000 per month and another $4,000 was set aside for other personnel expenses, according to Tadio.

ADMITS DRUG DEALS

Joseph's lawyer, Reginald Minn, noted that Tadio is serving an 87-month federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to a charge of witness tampering.

After Tadio said he really didn't think he was guilty of that charge, Minn asked him if he "decided to take the plea because they (federal authorities) were going to bury all the drug charges" in return for his testimony against Joseph and Motta.

Tadio denied that accusation.

Motta's lawyer, Charles Carnesi, led Tadio through a series of admissions about his drug trafficking activities.

Tadio admitted to importing between "200 to 400 pounds" of ice — crystal meth — from one source based in Las Vegas and to receiving "between 14 and 40 pounds of ice on a weekly basis" from another source.

All the drugs were delivered to an office Tadio kept at the Queen Emma Building in Downtown Honolulu, Tadio testified.

Others implicated in the drug trafficking have been indicted by the federal government but Tadio has yet to be charged.

Tadio told Carnesi that he still may be charged with those offenses and spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Carnesi noted that Tadio first told the FBI about the purported meeting with Motta on the Big Island on the same day that Drug Enforcement Administration agents made clear to him the extent of their knowledge about his drug crimes.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Brady noted that Tadio's statement about the Motta meeting came before he met later that day with drug agents.

Motta, 40, and Joseph, 41, are accused of committing murder, robbery and extortion in the course of running a racketeering business.

They allegedly killed members of the rival Samoan group, Lepo Utu Taliese and Romilius Corpuz Jr., on the afternoon of Jan. 7, 2004 on the grounds of the Pali municipal golf course.

Another man, Tinosomalu Sao, was shot in the head but recovered and is scheduled to testify for the prosecution.