HILO — On the first day of jury selection in the theft trial of Mayor Billy Kenoi in Hilo, the judge took matters into his own hands Monday.
“This case involves an allegation against Mayor Kenoi … involving the offenses of theft, tampering with a government record and (making a false statement under oath), stemming from the alleged misuse of a Hawaii County-issued credit card, allegedly for the mayor’s own personal use,” Honolulu Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario, who’s hearing the case because all Big Island judges recused themselves, told potential jurors. “If any of you heard about this case, through the media or through any other manner … please raise your hand.”
When it appeared all hands in the courtroom gallery were hoisted, Del Rosario quipped, “I’ll have to try it the other way now.” When the laughter died down, the judge asked, “Is there anyone who has not heard about this case?”
A lone woman raised her hand.
Kenoi, who was present, displayed a mostly subdued demeanor, but occasionally smiled or chuckled at something said during the proceedings.
In an unusual move, the judge did all the questioning of individual jurors Monday while Kenoi, his lawyers Todd Eddins and Richard Sing, and prosecutors Kevin Takata and Michelle Puu, both deputy attorneys general, sat and listened and/or took notes.
When the judge had finished his queries, 30 of the 44 jurors in Monday’s session were told to return Oct. 17, when they will presumably be questioned by the lawyers.
The other 14 were dismissed for various reasons, most saying they could not put aside their current feelings about the mayor — good or bad — the charges against him or the legal proceedings and be a fair and impartial arbiter of fact.
The charges against the mayor, which cover a time frame from 2011 to last year, stem from a yearlong investigation by the state attorney general’s office into the mayor’s misuse of his county credit card, also known as a pCard. The investigation started after Big Island newspapers reported Kenoi used his pCard to pay an $892 tab at Club Evergreen, a Honolulu hostess bar.
The mayor tallied almost $130,000 in charges on the card by then, including $1,219.69 for a surfboard, and a $700 tab at a Hilo karaoke bar. He also spent $400 at another Honolulu hostess bar, the Camelot Restaurant and Lounge.
Kenoi reimbursed the county for $22,292 in charges between January 2009 and March 2015. He later paid back approximately $9,500 more after the newspapers published their stories examining his pCard use.
The county issued its own pCard audit in July 2015 that found 145 pCard transactions totaling $23,683 in the Mayor’s Office didn’t follow county policy, had a questionable public purpose or might have violated state law. That included $3,689 in charges deemed personal.
In questioning the potential jurors, the judge said often that they are to consider only the evidence they see and hear during the course of the trial and must put aside anything they may have seen, heard or read from the media or other sources.
“What you see and read in the media is not always accurate,” Del Rosario said more than once.
One woman told the court Kenoi has been “almost convicted in the paper already.”
“We don’t really hear the other side of it,” she said.
Another woman was even more adamant.
“Frankly, I think this is a waste of taxpayer money because he paid it back,” she said. “As long as he paid it back, I think it’s OK.”
Both will be brought back for another round of questioning by the lawyers.
Asked by the judge what she learned from media accounts, a third woman replied, “I learned that the defendant was out partying and using government money, and that it was illegal.”
She was dismissed from further jury duty after saying she didn’t think she could put what she’s been exposed to and her reaction to it aside.
After jurors had gone home for the day, the judge heard some pending pretrial matters and expressed concern about the number of jurors who mentioned media accounts of bar tabs paid by Kenoi with the card.
“I want to make clear I don’t want any possibility of a mistrial, so I don’t want any references to acts not charged (as a criminal offense),” Del Rosario told the lawyers. “As we heard during the jury selection process, … the media coverage (that) caught (jurors’) attention was payments made at a bar, and I infer that means (Club) Evergreen. And that’s not charged.”
Del Rosario said he hopes jury selection will be completed on Oct. 17 and lawyers can then make their opening arguments.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.