A federal judge sentenced former Honolulu police officer Roddy Tsunezumi to nearly three years in prison Wednesday for attempting to extort $15,000 from the husband-and-wife owners of a Honolulu hostess bar who had turned to him for protection.
In addition to the 33-month prison term, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson fined Tsunezumi $5,000 and told him that what he did is reprehensible.
Tsunezumi was prepared to begin serving his prison term Wednesday. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson asked Watson to let Tsunezumi remain free for an additional two weeks to allow federal investigators to continue working with him.
Watson gave Tsunezumi until Jan. 28 to turn himself in.
Sorenson said Tsunezumi began cooperating with federal investigators immediately after he was arrested on suspicion of extortion, and he expects Tsunezumi to continue to cooperate for some time.
In addition to the extortion, prosecutors had charged Tsunezumi with conspiring to obtain and sell stolen vehicles whose vehicle identification numbers had been removed and replaced. Prosecutors agreed to drop the conspiracy charge as part of a deal in exchange for the guilty plea to extortion.
Tsunezumi, 38, pleaded guilty to extortion in July.
His lawyer, Lynn Panagakos, told Watson that Tsunezumi has also been cooperating with investigations by the Honolulu Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division.
Tsunezumi resigned from HPD in April after nine years of service.
He admitted that the bar owners approached him in 2013 about a robbery threat they received. Tsunezumi told the bar owners that the threat was serious and referred them to his cohort, Jeremy Javillo, for protection.
Javillo told the owners he could take care of their problem for $15,000.
Watson said Tsunezumi heightened the bar owners’ fears by telling them that the person who made the threat is "bad news," was going to rob or "hit" them, and that they should leave Hawaii for their own safety.
Javillo was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday. He also pleaded guilty to extortion in July.
