Ex-officer recorded talking with key witness

Federal prosecutors have released a transcript of a recorded conversation between a former police officer accused of corruption and a key witness in the case against him.

Former police Maj. Carlton Nishimura was recorded as saying he knew people, including other police officers, were going to falsely accuse him of corruption when, as the deputy commander of the downtown patrol district, he shut down only three of the four illegal gambling houses operating on Keeaumoku Street. But, he said, the operations he shut down attracted crime and violence, and police officers in the district’s own Crime Reduction Unit weren’t doing anything about it.

Nishimura made those comments during a Feb. 26, 2009, conversation with Doni Mei Imose, the key prosecution witness against him in a federal extortion case.

The FBI recorded the conversation.

Imose, also known as Doni Crisolo, was cooperating with the FBI in its investigation of Nishimura.

The federal prosecutor included a transcript of the conversation in response to a pretrial request by Nishimura asking the court to dismiss the case against him.

Nishimura, 56, who retired from the department at the end of last year, has been charged with extortion, witness tampering, lying to investigators and drug possession.

Nishimura was a captain and executive officer of the downtown patrol district when the government said he accepted money to protect a particular illegal gambling operation on Keeaumoku Street and to harass that operation’s competitors from April 2004 through March 2006.

In much of the recorded conversation, Nishimura tells Imose he went to her for help in taking down the gambling houses because he needed someone to get his undercover officers inside. He tells her he limited her involvement to introducing him to her ex-husband, who operated the fourth gambling house.

The husband in turn introduced him to a woman who could help get the undercover officers into the other gambling houses.

Nishimura tells Imose he was not able to shut down all four gambling houses because the operation did not go according to his plan.

"The investigation was supposed to take a lot longer," he said. "We were supposed to get more stuff into the games."

Regarding any payoffs, Nishimura tells Imose he is in the clear because he didn’t accept any money from her — and if her ex-husband told the FBI that he had given her money to deliver as payoffs, then "he owes you a whole bunch of f— money."

The prosecutor points to one portion of the conversation in which Nishimura tells Imose the investigators continue asking her about him "because they don’t have anything," adding, "They need that from you."

In another passage he tells her, "We just gotta stick together," which prosecutors say is evidence of Nishimura instructing Imose what to tell the FBI.

At the time of the recorded conversation, investigators apparently had yet to question Nishimura about his actions relating to the illegal gambling houses and his conversations with Imose. In one passage he tells Imose if the FBI wanted to know what happened they should talk to him instead of her.