Ala Wai clerk is banned
from city golf courses

Lawrence Helekahi says he took
money for setting tee times

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Star-Bulletin staff

A Circuit Court judge has banned a former Ala Wai Golf Course clerk from playing on municipal courses for accepting payment from golfers for choice tee times from April to May 2000.

Judge Karen Ahn also gave Lawrence Helekahi a deferred acceptance of a guilty plea and ordered him to serve 250 hours of community service and to pay $1,000 to the crime victims compensation fund. If Helekahi abides by conditions similar to probation for five years, he will be able to wipe his record clean.

Helekahi pleaded guilty to racketeering when the prosecutor's office agreed to drop the remaining charges of bribery. Racketeering carries a 10-year maximum jail term.

Helekahi, who worked at the golf course for three years, was one of three individuals indicted last June in the bribery scheme.

He and starter Janice Kakugawa, a 22-year city employee, had accepted $5 per person to let certain golfers play ahead of others. This was occurring about 10 times a day, circumventing the city's automated phone-in reservation system and the daily wait list.

Kakugawa was sentenced in November to five years' probation and ordered to perform 250 hours of community service and write a letter of apology to other golfers, which was to be posted at all city courses.

She was also ordered to pay a $15,000 fine.

Golfer Yong Cha Toyomura, who was charged with offering bribes to a starter at Ala Wai, also got the same sentence but was ordered to pay $2,000 in fines.

She pleaded guilty to one of six counts of bribery in exchange for her testimony against Kakugawa. The remaining charges were dropped.