The woman at the center of the federal extortion and witness tampering case against police Maj. Carlton Nishimura will have to testify at his bail hearing, a judge decided Tuesday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard L. Puglisi agreed to continue Nishimura’s bail hearing to Dec. 15 to allow Doni Mei Imose to testify.

Nishimura, 55, has been in custody since a Nov. 14 FBI raid on his home in which agents said they found about a half-pound of methamphetamine. A federal grand jury indicted him in February on charges of extortion, lying to investigators and witness tampering based on testimony from Imose.

In court Tuesday, federal prosecutor Thomas Muehleck said the government was willing to concede that Imose contacted Nishimura after the grand jury indictment, gave him a cellphone to maintain contact and visited him repeatedly at his Waianae home.

But Muehleck said there was no need for Imose to testify on whether Nishimura should be released on bail.

Muehleck said even if it was Imose who initiated the contact, Nishimura should not have had contact with her because she is a witness against him. He said Imose and Nishimura maintained contact from March through July.

Nishimura’s lawyer, federal public defender Peter Wolff Jr., said Nishimura has known Imose for 20 years. Wolff said her testimony is necessary to provide the court the whole picture.

Wolff said he intends to ask Imose how her relationship with Nishimura developed, whether she contacted Nishimura because she wanted to make things right after lying to the grand jury that indicted him, and whether she and Nishimura had a sexual relationship then later turned in anger against him.

Imose, 40, also known as Doni Crisolo, wasn’t available to testify Tuesday. She is awaiting sentencing in a 2008 federal drug case. Another judge granted Imose permission to travel to Las Vegas to attend a conference related to her job Nov. 28-30.

Lawyers on both sides of the case said Imose admitted to her previous lawyer in the drug case that she lied to the grand jury that indicted Nishimura in February.

Wolff has said Imose made a secret recording of the conversation with the lawyer. He said the FBI seized a copy of the recording during the raid on Nishimura’s home.

Federal prosecutor Susan Cushman said previously that Imose appeared in front of a grand jury last week and testified that what she said in February is true, and that Imose explained to the grand jurors why she told her lawyer she lied.

Nishimura is a 31-year veteran of HPD. The department said it placed Nishimura on unpaid leave following his drug arrest.