Feds call
Rodrigues
dangerous

Prosecutors request convicted
UPW leader be held without bail

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By Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.com

The federal government wants convicted union leader Gary Rodrigues held without bail pending sentencing, saying he poses a danger to federal prosecutors and to the community.

In a motion filed Tuesday but unsealed yesterday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni said that behavior and statements directed at the prosecution team by Rodrigues and his daughter Kauai police officer Shelly Rodrigues-Bonachita, on Nov. 19 after the jury returned with guilty verdicts "were perceived as threats."

Those statements and a belief by Rodrigues' supporters that a federal prosecutor has a "personal vendetta" against Rodrigues are evidence of the threat he presents to the prosecution team, Nakakuni said.

U.S. District Judge David Ezra, who presided over the 17-day trial but was not present for the verdict, said he was "extremely concerned" about Rodrigues' conduct and will hear arguments on the issue Monday.

Rodrigues' attorney, Doron Weinberg, had earlier downplayed some of the reports of Rodrigues' conduct as "exaggeration" and defended his client's actions as understandable given a verdict that he called "horribly unjust." He later said he did not witness the incidents personally but was told by others.

Rodrigues was found guilty last week on 101 counts, including embezzlement, mail fraud and money laundering stemming from the United Public Workers' dental and medical contracts. His daughter, Robin Haunani Rodrigues Sabatini, was also convicted on 95 counts of mail fraud and money laundering.

Rodrigues was accused of negotiating inflated premiums for the UPW's dental and medical plans and funneling the excess in the form of consulting fees to Sabatini without the union board's knowledge.

If Rodrigues is not detained, the government is asking that he have no contact with UPW members or UPW staff including the state executive board and that he be barred from the UPW hall here and on the other islands.

"He should not be involved in any way with the union which the jury has found he embezzled and defrauded," Nakakuni wrote.

Weinberg said yesterday that Rodrigues' "lifetime" is relevant as to whether he is a danger and will call witnesses to testify on Rodrigues' behalf.

Rodrigues, state director since 1981, resigned Friday, and the union's executive board appointed Dwight Takeno, the UPW's director of research and legislation and Rodrigues' supporter, as his temporary replacement.

A group of current and former UPW members feel that Rodrigues continues to exert control over the union and have asked the union's mainland parent to place the union under trusteeship and replace Takeno.

Yesterday, Ezra discharged the jurors after he dismissed a remaining count that would have required Rodrigues and Sabatini to forfeit $308,080 in consulting fees paid by the union that ended up in Sabatini's bank accounts.

But Ezra did not rule out that money could be returned to the union by imposing restitution or a fine on the two defendants at sentencing.

Without commenting, jurors left the courthouse yesterday under escort by U.S. marshals. One juror, who declined to give her name, said she did not feel "safe" serving on the jury but would not discuss why. She said she is relieved the trial is over and she can look forward to Thanksgiving with her family.

If Rodrigues is not detained, the government is also asking that Rodrigues-Bonachita be excluded from all related court proceedings. "Ms. Rodrigues-Bonachita is a sworn Kauai Police Department officer, and her invocation of her official position in connection with her threatening statements in the courtroom should not be tolerated," Nakakuni wrote in the government's motion.

While leaving the courtroom on Nov. 19, Rodrigues-Bonachita yelled to prosecutors, "I'm a police officer ... and you guys are on the wrong side of the law." She also repeatedly yelled at the prosecution team, "Look me in the eye," "You guys cannot look me in the eye."

Ezra noted he was only holding Rodrigues and Sabatini responsible for their behavior, and not their supporters or family members.

But he noted some of the actions by Rodrigues' supporters in the gallery could be viewed as threatening to government officials doing their job. "You don't engage in that behavior," he said.

Before leaving the courtroom on Nov. 19, Rodrigues pointed out the prosecution team to his granddaughter and repeatedly said, "Remember their faces." Outside the courthouse, he grabbed the microphone of a KITV 4 News reporter and threw it to the ground.