In the first campaign spending violation ever prosecuted by the state attorney general’s office, five-term state Rep. James Tokioka pleaded no contest Monday in Honolulu District Court and agreed to pay a fine of $1,000 for filing an incomplete and inaccurate campaign committee report.

At Monday’s hearing Tokioka (D, Wailua-Koloa) apologized for his actions. "I take full responsibility," he said.

Tokioka pleaded under the terms of a plea agreement.

Attorney General Doug Chin, who appeared before District Court Judge Paula Devens, told reporters after the hearing that "complaints from the public" were among the reasons his office pursued the matter.

Tokioka, 54, and his defense attorney, Craig A. De Costa, maintained that the entire complaint was motivated by Tokioka’s opponents in the 2014 elections and that Tokioka never deliberately tried to deceive the public by failing to report proceeds from two Honolulu fundraising events.

The state lawmaker said his treasurer didn’t get the information needed to promptly complete the forms because it was sent to an email address that is no longer used.

Tokioka said the error was a "miscommunication" and an "oversight" on the part of his volunteer campaign workers. He said the delay in reporting the donations was due to staff having difficulty verifying addresses on the checks.

Lauri Cicotello, one of the campaign supporters of challenger Dylan Hooser, who filed the complaint with the state Campaign Spending Commission, said it took 19 days for Tokioka to amend his campaign spending report. Tokioka won by a 2-to-1 margin in the August 2014 primary election, his closest race since first running for the House nine years ago.

De Costa said there were three complaints, all drafted by one person but signed by three different individuals.

Tokioka told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that letters were submitted by Hooser, Hooser’s girlfriend and another woman who worked on Hooser’s campaign, asking that the judge not accept the plea agreement. The judge declined because it was not relevant to the case, Tokioka said.

"Mistakes were made. We fixed them as soon as we could. I took the lie detector test when I was asked to, and there was no deception in the lie detector test by me or my treasurer," Tokioka said. "We cooperated with everything Campaign Spending and the attorney general’s office wanted us to do."

Tokioka, who has represented Kauai since January 2007 in District 15, also will publish an apology on his campaign’s Facebook page.

Chin said that Tokioka has already paid $945 to the Crime Victim Compensation Fund, according to the terms of the plea agreement.

Devens also approved a portion of the plea agreement that would allow Tokioka to clear his record of the misdemeanor charge if he stays out of trouble for a year. However, Devens also approved another term of the plea agreement that would allow Tokioka even earlier release if he stays free of any conviction within the next six months, making him eligible for early discharge.

According to a complaint filed in Honolulu Circuit Court on Aug. 11, Tokioka filed candidate committee reports with the Campaign Spending Commission on July 10 and 28 for the 2014 primary that failed to list all contributions.

Chin, after the hearing, said Tokioka in March and July raised $15,000 at one fundraiser and $16,000 at another.

Besides taking responsibility for the erroneous filing, De Costa said Tokioka has "taken steps that future clerical and communication errors are not repeated, and he has learned from this experience."

Star-Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief Kevin Dayton contributed to this report.