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Kahapea tells
judge he is unable
to testify

His reason is the magistrate didn't
allow Harris and Fasi to be
called for testimony

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

With his head facing down, Michael Kahapea told Circuit Judge Rey Graulty that he could not testify in his own defense because the judge did not allow Mayor Jeremy Harris, former Mayor Frank Fasi and others to testify in the trial.

Harris and those other witnesses, Kahapea argued, could have corroborated statements he would have made had he testified.

"My attorney has been denied the ability to bring in some of the witnesses that I felt would be helpful, specifically Mayor Harris," Kahapea said yesterday.

Kahapea is accused of 47 counts of theft, forgery and other charges for allegedly bilking the city of some $5.8 million in relocation money for the Ewa Villages project.

Harris could have testified, among other things, that he received a letter in 1991 from then-Housing Director Michael Scarfone regarding new relocation procedures that were to be followed, said Donald Wilkerson, Kahapea's attorney. The letter was also not allowed as evidence.

Graulty noted that Wilkerson did not ask to have Scarfone testify.

According to prosecutors, Kahapea masterminded a scheme where money from the Ewa Villages relocation fund was funneled to companies belonging to his family and friends for moves either not done or done at inflated prices.

Kahapea's defense has been that much of the relocation was diverted to cleaning up dump sites in Ewa Villages at the behest of his supervisors. He has also tried to shift some of the focus onto the late Norman Tam, the city's fair housing officer and Kahapea's co-defendant until he died last Dec. 31 of natural causes.

Wilkerson called police Capt. Daniel Hanagami, the lead detective in the Ewa Villages case, as his last witness and attempted to poke holes in the case against his client.

Hanagami told Wilkerson that he did not know if a box of computer diskettes that belonged to Tam -- and was submitted into evidence -- had been tainted.

Evelyn Pang, who had worked with both Kahapea and Tam, testified last week under questioning by Wilkerson that the box was not full when she retrieved it for city auditors but that it was now packed tightly.

Hanagami also said he lied as an interview technique when questioning a city official and saying former Managing Director Bob Fishman had told him it was common knowledge that relocation money was used for waste cleanup.

Fishman last week denied making that statement to the detective.

Hanagami said that he made the inference to Finance Department official Beryle Matsumura as "an interview technique."

The jury was to hear the case of co-defendant Stephen Swift today. He is accused of one count of theft for allegedly overbilling the city $11,000 to relocate Transcend, his demolition business.

Jurors also learned that closing arguments in the case will be heard a week from today.