Jury to decide
on liquor caseThe defense argues that money
payments were gifts, not bribes
A federal court jury began deliberating late yesterday in the corruption and extortion trial of two former Honolulu liquor control investigators who the government has alleged took money from local bars and "sold their offices for personal gain."
Retired liquor supervisor Harvey T. Hiranaka and former investigator Eduardo C. Mina have been on trial in U.S. District Court since April 23 on racketeering charges and conspiracy to racketeer, related to allegedly accepting payments from bar and club owners for not citing them for violations. Liquor investigators oversee violations ranging from the activities of exotic dancers and patrons in bars to the presence of minors or employees drinking during a shift.
As part of the alleged ongoing criminal activity or racketeering, Hiranaka faces nine counts of extortion for allegedly taking money from clubs for not enforcing regulations. Mina faces three counts for allegedly taking money from three clubs.
If convicted, they face 20 years on each count.
"Evidence shows that corruption was rampant in the Honolulu Liquor Commission," Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Michael Seabright said in closing arguments yesterday.
The defense has argued that the men were part of a "a gift-giving culture" in which bars simply gave them money that was not considered a bribe to influence them to overlook violations.
Seabright scoffed, "It's not a culture of simple gift giving. Do they give (cash) gifts to everyone who walks in the bar?"
In May 2002, eight investigators were charged in connection with the alleged extortion conspiracy. Six have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Only Hiranaka and Mina are standing trial.
Much of the government's evidence rests on the testimony of the other liquor investigators, several bar owners who alleged they paid bribes and 500 hours of tapes recorded over 80 nights when former liquor investigator Charles Wiggins wore a wire and radio transmitter on his nightly rounds to bars working with other investigators.
Wiggins, who was working with the FBI, wore the devices between Oct. 20, 2000, and May 3, 2001, according to Seabright.
In her closing arguments yesterday, Hiranaka's public defender, Pamela Byrne, said that Wiggins was not the whistleblower exposing corruption that the government painted. She called him the "lovely, unethical, money-grubbing Chas. Wiggins."
Seabright defended the government's witnesses, including Wiggins, saying that to expose such corruption the FBI turns to "people on the inside, people who have knowledge" and that is whoever is closely involved. He argued that Wiggins and other witnesses were not without faults.
Mina's attorney, Clifford Hunt, spent much of his closing trying to discredit witnesses, arguing the former investigators-turned-witness and some of the bar owners were motivated to testify in exchange for lesser sentences or penalties.