Plea deal in the works for Mayor Billy Kenoi?

HILO — Is a plea deal in the works for Mayor Billy Kenoi?

A Honolulu TV station’s Sunday night story to that effect sparked a quick reaction Monday from the mayor’s supporters and critics alike.

Hawaii News Now, citing unnamed sources, said Kenoi’s attorneys met with the state Attorney General’s Office earlier this month to consider a possible plea deal. If a deal does not materialize, Attorney General Doug Chin could convene a grand jury within a month to pursue possible theft charges, the TV station said in its report.

The Attorney General’s Office has no comment on the TV report, spokesman Josh Wisch said Monday.

“They did not have anything from us,” Wisch said.

He said it’s the office’s policy not to comment on ongoing investigations.

People may line up on one side or the other over whether the mayor’s admitted misuse of his county-issued credit card was a criminal act, but there’s one thing Big Island residents seem to agree on — the investigation has gone on long enough.

“It’s a joke that it’s taken this long to determine the guilt of a person who pled guilty on public television,” said Kapaau resident Lanric Hyland, who last year filed a complaint with the county Board of Ethics over Kenoi’s admitted misuse of his card.

“It should have been cleared up one way or the other,” said George Yokoyama, a Hilo nonprofit leader, political power broker and longtime Kenoi supporter. “People have to wait. Kenoi himself has to wait. Just get it over with.”

Former Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim, who had first hired Kenoi as an executive assistant, said his phone has been ringing off the hook since the Hawaii News Now report.

“There’s a lot of anxiety that goes on because there’s obviously no update from the attorney general,” Kim said. “Just get it done. The calls I’ve been getting just reinforces that.”

Kenoi’s attorney Howard Luke declined comment through a secretary. Kenoi did not return messages by press time Monday.

Chin had announced in early April that his office was investigating Kenoi after a March 29 West Hawaii Today report that Kenoi had charged $892 on his so-called “pCard“ in a single night at a Honolulu hostess bar. Subsequent investigation by the newspaper showed he spent hundreds at other bars, for campaign expenses and for personal purchases such as a surfboard and bicycle.

In all, the mayor racked up more than $120,000 on his pCard between January 2009 and March 2015. He paid back more than $30,000 in charges over the years, with $9,555 in payments coming after the newspaper broke the story.

The Attorney General’s Office subpoenaed West Hawaii Today’s records in the case Oct. 19. The newspaper is barred from disclosing the contents of the subpoena.

“We cooperated fully with the subpoena, while not revealing names of any confidential sources,” said David Bock, publisher and editor of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald who also supervises the West Hawaii Today newsroom. “The newspapers have devoted hours of staff time and resources investigating the use of pCards by top government officials to assure our readers that their tax dollars are being appropriately spent.”

More than 20 subpoenas were sent out in the course of the investigation, said a person close to the case who asked not to be identified.

The conclusion of a state-level criminal investigation can take several tracks. There can be a preliminary hearing in open court, a grand jury can return an indictment, the attorney general can charge by information or a settlement can be worked out between the suspect and the prosecuting office and filed with the court.

If Kenoi’s case is considered by a grand jury, it would happen in Hilo. There are two grand juries in Hilo, each meeting once a month, with the next session scheduled for Wednesday, according to information provided by the state Judiciary.

Emphasizing that he’s not commenting on any specific case, Todd Belt, a political science professor at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, said it’s difficult to know if penalties are lowered for an official resigning from office as part of a plea agreement. Generally plea agreements are sealed, so it’s difficult to find the details to make any kind of correlation, he said.

“The main question is whether a person being indicted has a particularly antagonistic relationship with the attorney general or the agency that’s doing the indictment,” Belt said. “Oftentimes what we see is partisanship really playing out in these indictments.”

Partisanship in an essentially one-party state like Hawaii can take the form of factions within the predominant party, he added. Nor is it easy to predict an outcome from the length of the investigation, he said.

“Career ambitions of prosecutors may come into play as well,” Belt said. “Any controversy gives an opportunity for media coverage.”

Kenoi, an attorney and former intern to the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, was considered a rising star in the Democratic Party. He’s term-limited, with his second four-year term due to end in December.

The mayor had his staff deflect the newspaper’s requests for documents that are public under state open records laws by providing summary information in some cases, and delaying and ignoring requests outright in others. It wasn’t until the newspaper published a report on the pCard misuses after obtaining a monthly statement from a confidential source that the Hawaii County Finance Department released the requested records.

The revelations set off a statewide media probe of government officials’ credit card use and a change to the Hawaii County ethics code. The state Office of Information Practices sent out a memo advising state and county agencies that pCard receipts are public records under the state Uniform Information Practices Act.

The county Board of Ethics has not yet ruled on the case.

Kenoi supporters outnumbered detractors 2-1 in September when the County Council mulled, then rejected, a reprimand. Supporters praised Kenoi for getting things done, especially for his work adding to and improving county parks.

“It’s the local style,” Yokoyama said. “I feel for him. I know the people like him.”