Man who stole kids’
football fund violates
probation, goes to prisonA judge orders Shane Santos
to serve his five-year sentence
A Waikiki man who was on probation after stealing money raised to send the Manoa Pop Warner football teams to a championship game in Las Vegas was sent to prison yesterday for violating that probation.
Circuit Judge Wilfred Watanabe told Shane Santos yesterday that he stuck his neck out for him the first time but was not going to do so again, deputy public defender Adrienne Sanders said.
Watanabe immediately ordered Santos to begin serving five years in prison.
"He deserved to be in jail the first time," said deputy prosecutor Alfred Brunn Jr. "He committed a crime against the community at large and didn't deserve to be on probation."
Santos, the father of a player on the children's football teams, had pleaded no contest in April 2000 to four counts of second-degree theft, second-degree attempted theft and third-degree theft for making off with $8,000 in kalua pig sales.
He also pleaded no contest to a separate charge of second-degree theft for stealing $2,250 intended for travel expenses.
Saying he had connections, Santos had volunteered his services to slaughter, cook and package the kalua pig to help the Paniolos football teams raise money so they could fly to Las Vegas in December 1999.
Santos later said he panicked and took the money because supporters failed to turn in the rest of the money by the deadline to pay for the pigs.
To avoid having to face the kids' disappointment and to "make up for the guilt he felt," Santos spent the money on a five-day trip to Las Vegas with his family, Deputy Public Defender Debra Loy said at the time of his sentencing.
Private donations from the community enabled the teams to attend the bowl game after all.
Santos had not been ordered to pay restitution, in part because Loy had argued he had no means to repay the money. Loy said that community service was the only way Santos could show the community he was sorry.
But yesterday, Brunn asked the court to revoke Santos' probation because, he said, Santos failed to perform any community service and comply with other conditions.
Brunns said that in the two years since he was placed on probation, Santos had:
>> Not completed any of the 500 hours of community service he was ordered to perform.
>> Did not find work or any educational or vocational training.
>> Stopped reporting to his probation officer.
>> Was convicted twice for violating protective orders by his girlfriend, the mother of his children.
Deputy public defender Adrienne Sanders asked the court yesterday to give Santos a second chance and re-sentence him to probation.
In his defense, Santos explained to Watanabe that he had to deal with his children, that there were many things going on in his life and that he had lost track of his probation.