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Former Honolulu police officer Michael Steven Chu said in federal court Friday that he knows he betrayed the public’s trust and hurt a lot of people when he helped his girlfriend grow and sell marijuana.
He said he will never do it again and that he has opened a new chapter in his life dedicated to helping others. He asked members of his family to forgive him and hopes to become someone they can be proud of.
U.S. District Chief Judge Susan Oki Mollway sentenced Chu on Friday to eight months in jail for conspiring to grow and possess marijuana to sell. She gave him until Feb. 13 to turn himself in to begin serving his jail term.
The maximum penalty under the law is five years in prison.
Under advisory federal court sentencing guidelines, with credit for Chu assisting the government in his prosecution, Mollway could have issued a sentence of up to a year.
Mollway will sentence Chu’s girlfriend, Athena Sui Lee, next month.
Honolulu police and U.S. Drug Enforcement Adminstration agents arrested Chu and Lee in April when the pair showed up at Lee’s Kapiolani Boulevard apartment as agents and officers were executing a search warrant. The DEA said Chu was carrying plant nutrients and other material used for growing plants indoors, and Lee was carrying a bag containing $12,000 cash in $2,000 bundles.
The DEA said it found a pound of processed marijuana in Chu’s vehicle and 20 marijuana plants growing in Lee’s apartment. The agents also found a large amount of cash in the apartment.
In Chu’s rented Mililani Mauka home, the DEA said it found 10 to 20 marijuana plants in another indoor growing operation.
The Police Department fired Chu after the 13-year veteran pleaded guilty in August.
Lee pleaded guilty in July.
