The prosecutor in Mayor Billy Kenoi’s theft case said during a pretrial hearing Friday in Hilo he plans to call an FBI forensic accountant as an expert witness to go through the mayor’s personal and family finances.
The prosecutor in Mayor Billy Kenoi’s theft case said during a pretrial hearing Friday in Hilo he plans to call an FBI forensic accountant as an expert witness to go through the mayor’s personal and family finances.
Kenoi faces two felony theft charges, two misdemeanor theft charges, three counts of falsifying a government record and a single count of making a false statement under oath. The charges stem from Kenoi’s misuse of a county-issued credit card, known as a purchasing card or pCard, some of it for personal items.
The theft charges cover the time frame of 2011 to 2014, while the alleged false statement occurred on Feb. 6, 2015.
Deputy Attorney General Kevin Takata told Honolulu Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario, who’s hearing the case, that he plans to call the expert “to testify about the available money that Mayor Kenoi had at that time.”
“The lack of available funds to pay for personal purchases was an explanation of why the county pCard was used,” Takata said.
Kenoi told reporters he did not have a personal credit card during a press conference in Honolulu he called last year after Big Island newspapers reported Kenoi used his pCard to rack up an $892 tab at a Honolulu hostess bar and a $400 tab at another, among numerous personal charges.
Kenoi’s lawyers opposed the attorney general’s proposed probe of the mayor’s personal finances.
Defense attorney Todd Eddins told the judge the state’s suggestion “that there is somehow intent to deprive (the county of money) through the use of a county pCard” is unfounded given the mayor’s donation of a $22,848 raise he received in 2014 to the Hawaii Island United Way.
“Their position is, ‘This guy’s got a debt, but he’s got no money to pay it.’ Then why is he foregoing $22,848 and giving it to Hawaii Island United Way? And that’s our point,” Eddins said.
An April 24, 2016, Tribune-Herald article featured a photo of a United Way pledge card made out by Kenoi, authorizing a $1,000 monthly deduction from his paycheck starting July 1, 2014, with a hand-written note that it is to “end at 6/30/15.”
The Finance Department said the $1,000 deduction is based on the mayor’s increase in take-home pay after taxes and other deductions were withdrawn.
It’s not clear whether Kenoi continued to contribute his raise to the United Way after that pledge expired. Kenoi, the county Finance Department and United Way officials did not respond to a reporter’s inquiry about the subject in April.
The judge said he will allow the expert testimony by an FBI forensic accountant.
It’s unclear whether the probe of Kenoi’s finances will delay the start of the trial, which is scheduled for Oct. 10 in Hilo.
The state also is seeking to exclude testimony about Kenoi’s achievements and accomplishments as mayor, but Eddins told Del Rosario that Kenoi was “showing appreciation and strengthening relationships” when he hosted the staff of Hawaii’s congressional delegation in Washington, using the pCard, and that the effort was central to federal stimulus money being appropriated to the county.
“The Saddle Road, especially after Senator Inouye’s death, it was a big deal whether there was going to be funding for that,” Eddins said. The Saddle Road, also known as Daniel K. Inouye Memorial Highway, is a state highway.
Takata called Eddins’ claims “a blatant, unabashed appeal to jury nullification.”
“Judge, what it comes down to is this: (Kenoi’s claim that) without all this drinking and dining with staff, and picking up the tab, then the county would not have received money, grants and business. That’s what it boils down to,” Takata said. “We don’t just feel that the events surrounding the individual transactions are relevant and can and should be gotten into. But he’s going much astray from that. And that’s the concern we have.”
“And I share your concern,” Del Rosario said, and told the lawyers he wanted more input from them in writing before he would decide whether Kenoi’s accomplishments would be considered fair game on the witness stand.
“The issue is not whether Mayor Kenoi was a good mayor or a bad mayor. That’s not an issue here. The issue is whether Mayor Kenoi committed a crime,” he said.
Del Rosario, who’s hearing Kenoi’s case because all Big Island judges recused themselves, was convivial with the lawyers on both sides, smiling almost continuously and laughing often.
He denied several defense motions to dismiss charges against Kenoi. He also said he would look over a group of 40 emails the state wants that the county corporation counsel, invoking attorney-client privilege, has refused to turn over, and would rule later as to whether the communications are privileged.
Kenoi displayed a mostly stoic demeanor during the hearing and left quickly and quietly afterward, in contrast to his arraignment in March, when he told a videographer “make sure you get my good side” and slapped low-fives with a couple of sheriff’s deputies on his way out.
All told, Kenoi spent about $130,000 with the card before it was revoked last year, an amount that included county and non-county expenses.
The county issued its own pCard audit in July 2015 that found 145 pCard transactions totaling $23,683 in the Mayor’s Office didn’t follow county policy, had a questionable public purpose or might have violated state law. That included $3,689 in charges deemed personal.
Kenoi reimbursed the county for $22,292 in charges between January 2009 and March 2015. He later paid back approximately $9,500 more after the newspapers published their stories examining his pCard use.
The hearing on pretrial motions will continue at 1 p.m. Sept. 30 in Hilo Circuit Court.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.