HILO — A judge recused himself from hearing a voter fraud case against a blogger who ran unsuccessfully for County Council in 2014.
Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura conferred privately at the bench Thursday with Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Hashizaki and defense attorney Brian De Lima, before announcing to the court that he would not be hearing the case against Tiffany Edwards Hunt.
The judge didn’t say publicly during the brief hearing about why he declined to hear the case, but Edwards Hunt’s attorney, Brian De Lima, said afterward Nakamura told the lawyers for both sides “he knows her, and he would have to recuse himself.”
Hashizaki also said the judge indicated he declined to hear the case “because he and Tiffany know each other.”
Edwards Hunt, 39, who was indicted Feb. 24 by a Hilo grand jury, is now scheduled to appear at 1 p.m. on Thursday, March 10, for arraignment and plea before Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara.
Asked whether it’s possible Hara, the only other circuit judge in Hilo, might follow suit, both De Lima and Hashizaki answered, “I don’t know.”
If that occurs, a judge from Kona or off-island could be brought to Hilo to hear the case.
Edwards Hunt, who is also a former West Hawaii Today reporter, is alleged to have illegally voted in the 2012 election, using her husband’s surf shop at 15-2883 Pahoa Village Road as her voting address instead of her home on Wao Kele Road in Hawaiian Acres subdivision. County elections records indicate she listed a post office box as her mailing address.
At the time, the Hawaiian Acres home was in Council District 5, while the surf shop was in Council District 4.
De Lima said he will file a motion requesting the case be dismissed.
“The bottom line is, at the time in the complaint that they have alleged, she and her husband and her children were predominately at (Jeff Hunt Surfboards),” De Lima said. “He had a living quarters at that location that he had improved because the Hawaiian Acres property was about a 20-minute drive off pavement, and she had two young children that she was nursing.
“… The long and short of it is, I have at least 25 witnesses that will be filing declarations attesting to the fact that she was predominately at that address. That was her domicile.”
The complaint that started the investigation was made by Sativa Sultan, the campaign manager for RJ Hampton, one of Edwards Hunt’s opponents in the 2014 primary election for the County Council District 5 seat.
Hampton was eliminated in the primary while Edwards Hunt moved to the general election, where she lost by 274 votes to Daniel Paleka.
Edwards Hunt, who declined to comment, previously attributed her election defeat to the investigation.
Voter fraud is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment and/or a $10,000 fine upon conviction.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.