JAMM AQUINO / STAR-BULLETIN Charmaine Moniz arrived at U.S. District Court yesterday.

Ex-FBI clerk admits data theft to alert husband

Charmaine Moniz used FBI information to warn her husband away from his drug dealer associates

A former accounting technician says she accessed the FBI's confidential database to warn her husband about active investigations, to keep him away from his drug dealer associates and not be arrested.

Charmaine Moniz, 35, of Waialua, pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court to one count of unauthorized access of a FBI computer between July 13 and 31, 2003, to further the activities of her husband, Eric "Babu" Moniz, and his drug-dealing friends on the North Shore.

"I had warned my husband about his association with these people -- and I accessed the data base and warned him again to stay away from them," Moniz told U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin Chang yesterday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni said Charmaine Moniz, who worked for the FBI from July 1999, beginning as a support services clerk, intentionally accessed the FBI computers in a manner that exceeded her authority.

According to a plea agreement, Moniz admitted to conducting an index search of her husband in the FBI's data base and also reviewing documents relating to the drug-dealing activities of Damien Kalei Hina, Jonathan Kimo Luna and Jess Lundgren -- all co-defendants with Moniz in a separate drug indictment. She admitted that she knew her husband was involved in the drug-dealing activities of Hina.

"Defendant Charmaine Moniz warned her husband, Eric Moniz, about these individuals and these warnings served to facilitate the drug activities of Damien Kalei Hina and Eric Moniz in that they became more cautious in their drug-dealing activities," prosecutors noted in the plea agreement.

Eric Moniz, charged in a separate indictment with six others, awaits trial next year for conspiring to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.

The couple married in May 2001 and have three children.

The evidence the government would have proffered had the case gone to trial included statements Charmaine Moniz had given to the FBI about her husband's longtime friendship with Hina. Because of these statements, the FBI began surveillance of her work activity on the night shift and determined that the dates and times she accessed the data base were beyond the scope of her authority.

Moniz told the FBI that she knew Hina, a drug dealer in Waialua, for a couple of years as a longtime friend of her husband. But whenever he would visit, he and her husband would meet outside, and she refused to socialize when he came over. She told the FBI she limited her contact with Hina because of his drug dealings.

The FBI recovered about seven grams of "ice" from Moniz's kitchen in December 2004 when they searched the couple's home.

At trial, Hina would have testified that his longtime friend Eric Moniz would make statements indicating "so and so" was under investigation and to "watch out for so and so," Nakakuni said.

Hina knew Charmaine Moniz worked for the FBI, but he had Eric Moniz hold on to some of the drug proceeds from time to time, Nakakuni said.

"Charmaine Moniz clearly loved her husband, and whether she agreed with it, she knew her husband was involved in drug dealing with Damien Hina and didn't want him arrested, and took it upon herself to access FBI reports ... and warned her husband," Nakakuni said.

Moniz, who remains free while awaiting sentencing, and her attorney, David Gierlach, declined comment after the hearing.

She faces a maximum of five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines when sentenced April 9.