Pflueger a free man after serving 7 months

Retired car dealer James Pflue­ger has completed his seven-month jail term for his role in the deaths of seven people who were swept away in 2006 by floodwaters that had breached Ka Loko Dam on Kauai’s north shore.

State Department of Public Safety spokes­woman Toni Schwartz said Friday that Pflue­ger’s "jail sentence end date was May 10. He returned all monitoring equipment to us the following day." Pflue­ger is no longer under DPS supervision for his conviction on felony reckless endangering.

Pflueger’s lawyer, William McCorriston, says Pflue­ger, 89, is "working out his health issues."

Pflueger’s no-contest plea in July 2013 to reckless endangering was part of a deal with the state attorney general. A no-contest plea by his company, Pacific 808 Properties LP, to seven counts of manslaughter and agreement to pay a $350,000 fine were also part of the deal. In exchange, the attorney general promised to recommend probation for Pflue­ger but was also free to ask for up to a year in jail as part of the sentence.

Circuit Judge Randal G.B. Valenciano rejected the $350,000 and instead imposed a $7,000 fine.

Aurora Solveig Fehring, Alan Gareth Dingwall, Rowan Grey Makana Fehring-Dingwall, Daniel Jay Arroyo, Christina Michelle McNees, Timothy Wendell Noonan Jr. and Carl Wayne Rotstein died March 14, 2006, when the Ka Loko Dam burst, sending 350 million gallons of water downstream.

In October, Valenciano sentenced Pflue­ger to five years of probation. As one of the conditions of the probation, Valenciano also imposed a seven-month jail term.

Pflueger began serving his jail term at Kauai Community Correctional Center immediately after Valenciano handed down his sentence. Barely a month and a half later, the state Department of Public Safety released Pflue­ger, placing him on extended furlough for medical reasons.

Then-DPS Director Ted Sakai said an experienced department physician advised him that the state was not able to appropriately care for Pflue­ger in any correctional facility.

At sentencing, Mark Zen­ger, one of Pflue­ger’s lawyers, told Valenciano that the retired car dealer had recent surgery to treat a deep ulcer in his foot, to remove a cancerous legion from his leg and for a hernia. Zenger also said Pflue­ger suffers from a multitude of ailments including congestive heart failure, rapid and irregular heartbeat, fatigue, shortness of breath, vision problems and severe arthritis.

Pflueger was restricted to his Hawaii Kai home during the furlough, which the DPS could monitor through an ankle bracelet.

Now that Pflueger has completed the jail term, the state court has supervision over him for the rest of his probation.