Drug tester is sorry
he had his hand out

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By Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.com

A former employee of Drug Addiction Services of Hawaii said he took bribes to alter drug-test results for federal defendants under supervised release because he felt sorry for them.

Carl Hauoli Kaikaina, 48, himself a convicted felon, had been ordered by the court to undergo urinalysis testing, making him aware of the seriousness and consequences of his actions, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Hino.

"If he truly intended to help people, why was he charging people money?" Hino argued yesterday against Kaikaina's request for a more lenient sentence.

U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor sentenced Kaikaina yesterday to the maximum under federal guidelines of 24 months in prison for soliciting and accepting bribes on three occasions, plus one count of making a false statement. He was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release after he gets out of prison. She also fined him $1,000.

Drug Addiction Services contracts with the U.S. Probation Office to provide drug testing to individuals, including pretrial detainees and convicted defendants who must submit to drug testing while under supervised release.

Kaikaina was responsible for collecting urine samples from all male defendants, testing them and forwarding the samples to a lab. He also prepared reports to the U.S. Probation Office for purposes of billing and to help probation officers decide the level of supervision a defendant needed.

Kaikaina admitted to soliciting bribes during a six- to eight-month period before he was caught and interviewed by federal investigators on July 15. He even admitted to soliciting and receiving a bribe the same day he was interviewed, Hino said.

Kaikaina admitted to receiving payments on 32 occasions for falsifying urine test results -- providing negative test results when he actually never conducted the tests. Kaikaina initially told investigators he received between $25 and $50 per bribe, but later admitted the range was $40 to $120 per bribe, Hino said. Kaikaina admitted to receiving about $2,060.

Gillmor said his actions were an "impediment and a roadblock" to the court and the Probation Office's efforts to help people on supervised release stay away from illegal substances.

Hino credited the FBI for responding quickly to the complaint by having one of their agents pose undercover as a defendant on supervised release.

Kaikaina's attorney, Barry Edwards, had argued that Kaikaina be allowed to serve half his sentence in home detention and the other half on probation with some level of supervised release. Kaikaina, a single father, has a 10-year-old daughter.

Edwards said Kaikaina confessed when he was caught and has tried to make amends by helping others with drug problems.

Kaikaina apologized to the court for his conduct and said he would accept his sentence.