Drug tester A federal grand jury has indicted a former employee of Drug Addiction Services of Hawaii on charges of soliciting and accepting bribes to alter the urine test results of a defendant on supervised release and an undercover FBI agent.
accused of bribery
Carl Kaikaina allegedly
falsified drug test results
at a former jobBy Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.comCarl Hauoli Kaikaina, 48, of the University area was charged Thursday in a secret indictment with five counts of bribery and three counts of making a false statement.
At his initial appearance in U.S. District Court yesterday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Hino told the court that Kaikaina has admitted to altering test results for other individuals as well.
Kaikaina was arrested after he turned himself in yesterday morning. He was released pending trial Oct. 8 after posting a signature bond. He could not be reached for comment. His former employer also could not be reached for comment.
Drug Addiction Services of Hawaii on Nimitz Highway contracts with the federal government to provide drug testing services to individuals, including pretrial detainees or defendants who have served their prison time and are now on supervised release.
As part of his job, Kaikaina collected random urine samples. According to the indictment, he claimed to have performed urinalysis screenings for one individual on three occasions between June 17 and 29 with negative results, when in fact he did not conduct the tests, Hino said.
The same individual tested positive on another occasion, Hino said. While it was not Kaikaina who collected the sample, he offered to switch the sample, but the individual refused, Hino said.
The FBI sent in one of its agents undercover on July 15, and Kaikaina allegedly told the agent that if he was paid $50, he would not conduct the urine test but would submit a negative result.
The false-statement charges stem from the forms he filled out for three urine samples indicating he conducted the tests with negative results, when in fact he did not perform the tests, authorities said.
U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo said Kaikaina's actions -- allegedly keeping valid positive drug test results from the court -- constitute obstruction of justice and amount to corruption by a federal official. Because DASH receives federal funding, Kaikaina is considered a federal official.
Kaikaina's alleged wrongdoing "frustrates" the system, which places a degree of trust in people to monitor individuals released under the requirement that they undergo urine testing, Kubo said.
Also, Kaikaina's actions increase the risk of danger posed by individuals who may be using drugs in violation of court orders and who may commit other crimes to support their habit, Kubo said.
A positive drug screening test could result in severe sanctions against individuals for violating terms of their court-ordered supervision. The court could revoke their supervised-release status and send them back to prison to serve additional time or to be held while awaiting trial.
If convicted, Kaikaina faces a maximum of 15 years on each of the bribery counts, five years on each of the false-statement counts and a maximum $2 million fine.
The investigation into Kaikaina began when complaints were made to the U.S. Probation Office. The FBI immediately began investigating and conducted the undercover operation that resulted in the charges.