HONOLULU (AP) — A former Honolulu police officer and former University of Hawaii volleyball player admitted he solicited sex from a woman in exchange for his help in getting her prostitution case dropped.
Maulia LaBarre pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of committing wire fraud to deprive the city of his services as a police officer by making telephone calls and sending text messages to solicit a bribe to not perform his sworn duties.
LaBarre faces a maximum 20-year prison term at sentencing in October. He also faces having to pay restitution, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported (http://bit.ly/2ti9nxS).
In exchange for LaBarre’s guilty plea, the government has agreed to drop four other counts of wire fraud.
LaBarre admitted in his plea agreement that between Jan. 31, 2016 and April 19, 2016, he devised and carried out a scheme to deprive the city of his services as a police officer through bribery and cover-up.
He told U.S. District Senior Judge Susan Oki Mollway he looked up the woman’s telephone number on his police computer because her name came up in an unrelated case. He said he then called the woman, exchanged text messages, offered to help her with her prostitution case and met with her in person at a coffee shop.
When the woman asked what she owed him for his help, LaBarre said he told the woman she didn’t owe him anything and that he never intended to have sex with her.
Following a short recess, during which his lawyer and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Nammar explained to him he could not plead guilty if he never solicited sex from the woman, LaBarre told Mollway he offered to help the woman to “possibly have sex with her.”
Investigators with the state Department of the Attorney General arrested LaBarre in April 2016 in an apparent sting. They later turned the case over to federal officials.
The Hawaii Police Department placed LaBarre on restricted duty following his arrest, then discharged him this past May. He had been with the department just shy of nine years.
LaBarre played volleyball at the University of Hawaii in 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006.