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Witness says he,
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Kahapea split first
$18,800 check
Star-BulletinOn Oct. 21, 1993, then-city official Michael Kahapea went to Benton Post's place of business in Ewa Villages and handed him a check from the city for $18,800.
Moments later, the two drove to the Waipahu branch of Central Pacific Bank, where Post deposited half the money and gave the other half to Kahapea.
That was Post's testimony yesterday in the trial against Kahapea, charged with defrauding the Ewa Villages relocation fund of $5.8 million.
Kahapea was in charge of relocating commercial businesses from Ewa Villages to allow the city to renovate the area. Instead, Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee said, Kahapea directed and authorized payments from the relocation fund to go to family, friends and acquaintances who set up bogus moving companies.
Post, who has already pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree theft, was the first witness in the prosecution's case.
Post was maintenance manager at the Ewa Villages repair shop of Aloha State Tours, former contractors for the city's HandiVan service, when he was approached by Kahapea.
A married father of four, Post said Kahapea told him: "You work hard, you should be entitled to some relocation money also."
Post acknowledged he knew what he was doing was illegal because he neither did any of the moves nor was he a tenant being moved.
He also said he signed blank forms at Kahapea's request, forms he later learned were requests for payment made to the city.
"It was wrong, I don't know what the technical name for it was, but it wasn't right," Post said.
In all, he testified that he received three payments from Kahapea totaling $39,200.
Also testifying yesterday was Paul Nakayama, enforcement officer for the state Public Utilities Commission.
Nakayama said none of five companies that received payments for bogus moves were ever issued licenses to make commercial moves.
Earlier, Lee told jurors Kahapea broke the trust bestowed by his bosses to pay off Las Vegas gambling debts, invest in business interests and repay loans from friends and co-workers.
Kahapea attorney Donald Wilkerson said Mayor Jeremy Harris and other supervisors are to blame for how the Ewa relocation fund climbed from only $1.2 million in 1992 to $6.3 million.
Wilkerson said some funds were used to rehabilitate homes and clean dump sites, projects that were not supposed to be covered by the relocation funds.
Six of seven other defendants in the case have pleaded out and are cooperating with the prosecution.
The seventh, Stephen Swift, is standing trial with Kahapea. He is accused of overcharging the city for a move by about $11,000 and is facing a second-degree theft charge.
Deputy public defender Todd Eddins said Swift incurred a number of costs as a result of the relocation forced on him, more than what he charged the city.
