Former County Councilman and Na Leo TV CEO Stacy Higa is getting a reprieve from sentencing and possible incarceration for embezzling federal money and bribing a co-conspirator.
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, in an order filed Monday, continued Higa’s sentencing hearing to Feb. 25.
Higa’s Honolulu attorney William A. Harrison in a Jan 6 motion had asked for postponement of Higa’s sentencing that was scheduled Thursday because Harrison isn’t ready to hop aboard an airplane to be with Higa in Hilo for the videoconferenced hearing.
“Counsel is hesitant to travel next week due to the high COVID counts,” Harrison said in the motion. “My client understands the situation and concurs in this request.”
Harrison told the newspaper Monday that he used to fly around the state to see clients two or three times week, pre-pandemic. In the past two years, he said, he can count on “two or three fingers” the times he’s traveled.
“I don’t want to be catching COVID at 68,” Harrison said.
The state’s daily count of new cases, which had previously hit a record high of 1,658 in August, has been hovering around 4,000 or more daily new cases for almost a week, according to data provided by the state Department of Health.
Higa, 58, admitted Oct. 13, 2021, in federal court to embezzling more than $38,000 from the AmeriCorps program that was geared for disaster preparedness and attempting to embezzle $850,000 from the federal coronavirus relief fund that was supposed to be used to reimburse the costs of business interruption caused by required closures and to provide economic relief for those suffering employment interruption. He admitted using some of the money for cosmetic dental surgery and to help fund his 2020 campaign for mayor.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Higa faces a likely range of between 46 and 57 months in prison and a fine of up to $200,000.
The plea agreement requires him to pay $38,642 in restitution to AmeriCorps and an identical amount in a forfeiture money judgment.
Higa’s co-conspirator, Hanalei Aipoalani, 42, of Waianae, Oahu, who admitted to embezzling from AmeriCorps and agreeing to accept a bribe under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, was sentenced on June 30, 2021, to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $532,730 in restitution to AmeriCorps.
Judge Walton, holding the Oct. 13, 2021, hearing via video and audio-conference from Washington, D.C., seemed inclined to sentence Higa to prison time.
“I consider this to be very serious conduct. I don’t understand the mentality of someone when we appropriate money to try to help people during the most devastating occurrence that has happened to this country. … People are so low they would steal the money for your own purpose,” Walton said at the time. “People don’t want to pay taxes because so much is stolen. … You better be in a position to explain to me why you shouldn’t go to prison.”
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.