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Trial’s attorneys
sling accusations
of lying

The jury begins deliberations
on the high-profile case

By Gordon Y. K. Pang
and Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

Who did the lying?

That's what attorneys from all sides of the Ewa Villages theft trial wanted jurors to focus on as they began deliberations.

In Circuit Judge Rey Graulty's courtroom yesterday, Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee accused fired city housing employee Michael Kahapea of masterminding a scheme that stole $5.9 million from a relocation fund through lies and deception.

But Donald Wilkerson, Kahapea's attorney, and Todd Eddins, the public defender representing codefendant Stephen Swift, said it was city employees who took the stand who were guilty of lies.

Lee said Kahapea first lied by falsifying forms that resulted in cash funneled to bogus companies that he and accomplices set up, but did no real work.

Kahapea received roughly half of the $5.8 million in illegitimate payments in the form of kickbacks, the prosecutor said.

Lee also said city employees relied heavily on Kahapea and his years of experience as the city's relocation officer to deal with Ewa Villages.

Kahapea, on his own, determined who should move and then later told his superiors that the commercial entities chose to relocate on their own, Lee said.

Even when they were suspicious and queried Kahapea about questionable relocations, Lee said, the "unconditional trust" that supervisors and colleagues had in him left them satisfied with the answers.

Wilkerson and Eddins, in an almost tag-team effort, questioned the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses.

Wilkerson continued his verbal assault on police Capt. Daniel Hanagami, lead detective of the white-collar unit who arrested Kahapea and other defendants in the Ewa Villages case, calling his investigation "shoddy" and "lacking."

Among Wilkerson's chief charges is that Hanagami and, by extension, Lee engaged in selective enforcement. Wilkerson suggested that some of those questioned by police but not charged also were guilty of crimes.

He went so far as to say Hanagami or other city officials "fabricated" evidence against Kahapea.

Wilkerson also questioned Mayor Jeremy Harris' absence on the witness stand. "Where was Mayor Harris and why wasn't he allowed to testify?"

The court had ruled that Harris' testimony, as well as that of other city officials who were not allowed to testify, would have been cumulative.

Wilkerson said there were lies in the testimony of the city's former managing director, Bob Fishman, who claimed he never talked to the mayor about the Ewa Villages project.

Throughout the trial, Wilkerson has suggested that a portion of the relocation fund's money was shifted to help clean waste sites at the instruction of Kahapea's superiors. But even through yesterday, Wilkerson made allusions but gave no specifics to such.

Eddins, attorney for codefendant Swift, also questioned the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses.

"These guys got up here and lied to you," Eddins said.

Swift is accused of improperly receiving and cashing a $19,000 check from the city through Kahapea. Eddins said Swift was due the money and more because Kahapea had promised him payment for work that was required on his business' new location after he was forced to move out of Ewa Villages.

"The essence of theft is money for nothing," Eddins said. "When you do the work, it's not a theft."