The leader of the United Public Workers says it is state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim who should apologize, not the state prison guard who Kim says threatened her.

In a letter to Kim delivered yesterday, Dayton Nakanelua, UPW state director, called Kim's complaint “;malicious.”;

After checking with the female adult corrections officer and other witnesses, Nakanelua said in his letter to Kim that “;the ACO in question did not threaten you or your staff.”;

“;You owe the ACO that you disparaged a personal apology, Sen. Kim, for casting doubt on her character and putting her career in jeopardy with your baseless accusations,”; Nakanelua said.

Kim told the Star-Bulletin on April 9 that she felt she was threatened when prison guards were lobbying in her office and one female guard told her staff that “;if I got shot while I was driving around, it would be my own fault.”;

Kim said yesterday she would not apologize to the UPW, noting that after the incident occurred a UPW official apologized to her and said the union also apologized.

Nakanelua, however, said, “;The comments made by the ACO were misconstrued and taken out of context. There were similar statements of that kind made in other legislative offices during the day,”; he said.

Much of the tension comes from the Senate version of the state budget prepared by Kim that calls for closing one module at Halawa prison and moving more than 200 inmates to mainland facilities.

The union says that could cost 100 union members their jobs.

“;You challenged our contention that 70 jobs would be lost while having nothing to say on the issue of public safety,”; Nakanelua said in his letter to Kim.

But Kim said yesterday that her estimates and those of prison officials are that only 24 union jobs would be lost.

Nakanelua said the female prison guard is still working, but the Department of Public Safety's Internal Affairs Division is continuing an investigation.