The principal and elementary administrator of Myron B. Thompson state public charter school are claiming victory after pleading no contest and escaping jail time in state court Wednesday on charges of theft and tampering with government records.

Principal Diana Oshiro, 66, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor tampering and her sister, Kurumi Kaapana-Aki, 59, pleaded no contest to tampering and felony theft. As part of their plea agreements, the sisters then asked, without opposition from the state attorney general, for deferrals of their pleas, to give them the opportunity to avoid conviction and have the charges cleared from their criminal records if they stay out of trouble for a specified period of time.

Circuit Judge Richard Perkins granted the deferrals, specifying a court-supervised one-year deferral period for Oshiro and a five-year deferral period for Kaapana-Aki. According to the terms of their plea agreements, the attorney general will not oppose the sisters’ request for early termination of court supervision at the halfway point of their deferral periods.

Perkins also ordered Oshiro to perform 40 hours of community service and Kaapana-Aki to perform 75 hours of community service and required both to write letters of apology to the governing board of the Myron B. Thompson Academy.

State Charter School Commission Chairwoman Catherine Payne said the commission is aware of what transpired in court Wednesday and it is up to the school’s governing board to decide what, if anything, to do next.

“There is a process in place for the governing board of Myron B. Thompson Academy to review and decide its course of action as the employer of those two individuals,” Payne said.

The chairman of the governing board, Myron G. Thompson, attended Wednesday’s court hearing. After the hearing, he said the board continues to fully stand behind Oshiro and Kaapana-Aki.

“They’ve been the reason for the success of our school. We’ve been ranked No. 1 in the state for the last four years, and it’s because of them and their abilities as educators,” Thompson said.

Oshiro’s lawyer Eric Seitz said neither of the sisters did anything wrong, they’re walking away without any blemishes on their records and that the attorney general never should have brought charges against them.

“It is absolutely a waste of money and time for this case to come forward,” Seitz said.

He said they pleaded no contest to avoid the expense of years of further litigation and a monthslong trial. He said Oshiro and Kaapana-Aki backdated leave requests that were confusing and at the advice of previous state lawyers.

Deputy Attorney General Vince Kanemoto said he filed charges that evidence from a two-and-a-half-year investigation supports. He said the theft charge is based on Kaapana-Aki taking unauthorized paid leave between May 2007 and March 2013.

He said when Oshiro and Kaapana-Aki learned of allegations of unauthorized paid leave, they prepared after-the-fact leave authorization forms and backdated the forms to cover up the theft.