Expert: Not ma’s signature in deed

Handwriting expert Reed Hayes walks to the Superior Court courtroom yesterday afternoon to resume his testimony in the ongoing bench trial of Sen. Paul A. Manglona’s lawsuit against his siblings over a piece of land. Hayes, who was involved in the Barack Obama birth certificate saga, testified that it was not the signature of Manglona’s late mother, Bernadita, in the purported deed of gift for the land. (Ferdie de la Torre)

A handwriting expert from Hawaii who was earlier involved in the Barack Obama birth certificate saga testified in court yesterday that the signature in a deed of gift of land to Sen. Paul A. Manglona (Ind-Rota) does not match his mother’s other signatures.

In the ongoing bench trial of the lawsuit filed by the senator against his siblings over a piece of land on Upper Capital Hill, Reed Hayes said that, based on his analysis, the questioned signature of Paul Manglona’s late mother, Bernadita, does not match her 18 known exemplar signatures.

Hayes is the expert witness of Paul Manglona’s siblings, Priscilla M. Torres and Thomas A. Manglona, who are among the siblings the senator is suing over the property.

Hayes said that, in his opinion, Bernadita did not sign the purported deed of gift dated July 11, 1985, that gave the property solely to Sen. Paul Manglona.

“I’m absolutely certain,” he said about his findings.

Paul Manglona, who is also suing Associate Justice John A. Manglona over the disputed 4,181-square-meter property, wants the court to declare him the owner of the property by virtue of the 1985 deed of gift. Their mother, Bernardita, is already deceased.

Torres and Thomas Manglona, co-administrators of the Bernadita estate, asserted that their brother, Paul Manglona, does not entirely inherit the disputed land as their mother’s signature in the document had been forged.

Hayes testified that he came to his conclusion based on the totality of the 18 sample signatures of Bernardita that he reviewed. The samples, called exemplars, are apparently known signatures that Bernadita made from 1984 to 2008.

Hayes agreed during cross-examination that some illnesses could change a person’s signature.

Paul Manglona is represented in the case by Rene Holmes and Mark Scoggins.

The Manglona siblings are represented by Samuel Mok.

Mok objected when Holmes asked about Hayes’ involvement in the Obama birth certificate controversy, but he was overruled by judge pro tem David A. Wiseman, who is presiding over the trial.

Hayes recounted that he was tasked by the Maricopa County volunteer group Cold Case Posse to look at the electronic PDF image of Obama’s long form birth certificate. Hayes said he evaluated the authenticity of the PDF version of the Obama “certificate of live birth” that was released by the White House and posted on the White House website in April 2011.

Hayes said he posted an article online in August 2016 about the Obama birth certificate issue because of false information spreading in the internet.

Hayes said he only examined the PDF document itself and not the original birth certificate. In the article Hayes wrote that there are indications that the certificate of live birth released by the White House in 2011 may be a manufactured document or perhaps even an outright forgery. He, however, emphasized that without examining the original document housed at the Hawaii Department of Health, there can be no absolute certainty.

The trial will resume at 8:30am today, Thursday.