Police Maj. Carlton Nishimura received about $6,000 a month from the operator of an illegal gambling room on Keeaumoku Street from April 2004 through March 2006 to protect the operation, and used the money to support his own gambling activities, the FBI said in court records a federal judge unsealed last week.
Nishimura, 55, is facing federal charges of extortion, lying to investigators, witness tampering and drug possession.
He had been free on bond after his Feb. 17 indictment. He was arrested following a Nov. 14 FBI raid on his Waianae home and remains in custody.
The unsealed records are search warrants and supporting documents related to the raid, during which the FBI said its agents found paraphernalia used by drug dealers and about a half-pound of methamphetamine.
The FBI said it also found $2,400 in $100 and $20 bills in a safe in Nishimura’s home, collector coins and what appeared to be gold jewelry and precious stones or diamonds. Other items include restaurant and store gift cards, receipts for designer brand clothing accessories, player club cards for Boyd Casino and Mirage Casino and a 2003 betting odds sheet for college basketball.
His ex-wife said Nishimura had a significant gambling habit when they lived together, and a person involved in a bookmaking operation identified Nishimura as someone who placed bets with the operation, the FBI said.
The FBI said that during the period he is charged with extortion, Nishimura directed HPD officers to conduct inspections of illegal gambling operations run by competitors of the operator who was paying him to harass the competitors.
At the time, Nishimura was a captain assigned to the patrol district that includes Keeaumoku Street.
Agents found HPD records of one such inspection in Nishimura’s home, including a photograph, of a woman, taken during the inspection, the FBI said.
The FBI went to Nishimura’s home on Nov. 14 to find wireless telephones that the key prosecution witness in the extortion, lying and witness tampering charges said Nishimura used to communicate with her after his February indictment as further evidence of witness tampering, according to the search warrant.
Under the terms of his release on bond, Nishimura was prohibited from having contact with the witness, Doni Mei Imose.
Federal prosecutor Thomas Muehleck has said Imose initiated the contact about a month after the February indictment and provided Nishimura a wireless telephone to maintain contact with him. He said Imose communicated with Nishimura from March through July and frequently visited Nishimura at his home.
The FBI said Imose was not acting on behalf of the government when she contacted Nishimura and did so without the government’s knowledge.
In addition to meeting at Nishimura’s home, the FBI said Nishimura visited Imose in Waikiki hotels in May. The FBI said the two continued to communicate through text messages until Nov. 5. Nishimura’s text messages urge Imose to not cooperate with the government against him, the FBI said.
In one text message the FBI said Nishimura wrote, "They want us not to cooperate with each other. They can only win if we fight each other. Only together can we both defeat them," according to the search warrant.
Other items the FBI said its agents found in Nishimura’s home include recording devices, audiotapes and notes Nishimura used to coach Imose on what false statements to make should she testify in trial.
The FBI said it secretly recorded Nishimura in 2009 coaching Imose on how to lie and withhold information from investigators.
Nishimura’s lawyer, Federal Public Defender Peter Wolff Jr., said in a previous court hearing that among the items the FBI seized from the home is a secret recording Imose made of a conversation she had with her previous lawyer in which she tells the lawyer she lied to the grand jury that indicted Nishimura in February.
Imose’s new lawyer, William Harrison, provided the court a copy of the recording under subpoena.
Wolff included a copy of the recording in a request for Imose’s grand jury testimony. Wolff said the recording was probably made on March 14, based on the digital time stamp.
The content of the recording suggests the conversation between Imose and her former lawyer, Pamela Tamashiro, occurred at least two weeks before March 29.
The content also suggests the recorded conversation was not the first time Imose disclosed to Tamashiro that she lied to the grand jury.
In the recording Imose said her ex-husband gave her money to pay Nishimura but that she kept the money for herself. She said she did that because her ex-husband owed her money and gave her a hard time when she wanted the divorce.
Imose said she initially told investigators she never gave Nishimura any money, but that’s not what the investigators wanted to hear. So in the end, under constant pressure from them, often without her lawyer present, Imose said she told the investigators what they wanted to hear, that she did deliver the money to Nishimura.
"I didn’t realize it was going to cause so much pain for a lot of people," Imose said in the recording.
She also told Tamashiro she couldn’t live with herself for lying about Nishimura to the grand jury and intended to set things straight to save her friendship with Nishimura.
Imose discusses with Tamashiro telling Wolff she lied to the grand jury. She also asks Tamashiro what effect that would have on the government investigators.
"You know what, they should get burned, f—–s. They put pressure on you to say what they wanna hear. Did they ever polygraph you?" Tamashiro said.
Imose, 40, also known as Doni Crisolo, pleaded guilty in July 2009 to conspiracy for her role in a methamphetamine distribution ring that imported the drug from California and distributed it on Hawaii island and Oahu. Her current husband, Jay Crisolo, also pleaded guilty in July 2009. They are the last of 10 defendants in the case not yet sentenced.
