A special House committee that was created to possibly investigate state Rep. Sharon Har following her drunken driving arrest 11 months ago appears unlikely to pursue potential sanctions against her, House Speaker Scott Saiki told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser.

The committee is chaired by House Majority Leader Della Au Belatti (D, Moiliili-­Makiki-Tantalus), whose separate House Investigative Committee on Saturday released a 292-page report of its five-month investigation of state Auditor Les Kondo, which found no criminal wrongdoing by Kondo or his office but made recommendations for oversight of his office.

Saiki (D, Downtown-­Kakaako-McCully) said the committees had separate focuses and that the findings on Kondo had no influence on his decision to stand down the committee on Har. But critics of Belatti’s investigation of Kondo saw a direct line to halt the House committee investigation of Har.

Har is “outspoken and she’s strong and smart, and that threatens people,” said state Rep. Dale Kobayashi (D, Manoa-Punahou-Moiliili), a member of the special House Investigative Committee that investigated Kondo. “Maybe they (House leadership) learned their lesson when they went after the auditor for no reason. Given what happened (with Kondo), it would be stupid to continue to go after people like that.”

State Rep. James Tokioka (D, Wailua-Hanamaulu-­Lihue) said elected officials are “held to a different standard.”

But given that a judge acquitted Har and dismissed her case, Tokioka said, “Why would the House want to proceed (with an investigation), especially after we had spent so much time on the auditor’s case? I don’t understand why we’re doing some of these things. It just seems like retaliation for people who have not agreed with Scott Saiki and Della Au Belatti — in both cases, Sharon Har and Les Kondo.”

Saiki said his decision to not pursue an investigation of Har was driven by a judge’s dismissal of her criminal case and her acquittal Jan. 10 after Har’s attorney cited a Dec. 10 Hawaii Supreme Court decision that criminal complaints are defective if they do not follow a procedural law requiring a signed affidavit or official declaration from the complaining party.

Har’s defense attorney, Howard Luke, said that a House investigation following Har’s acquittal and dismissal of her case would be “tantamount to double jeopardy. … And Rep. Har was pilloried in the media, both the public media as well as social media.”

Har was arrested the night of Feb. 22 after leaving AnyPlace Cocktail Lounge. Officers found her alone in her 2019 Mercedes-Benz in the head-on direction of one-way traffic on South Beretania at Piikoi streets.

While the House committee that was created to investigate her arrest appears ready to dissolve, Har (D, Kapolei-Makakilo) faces other fallout.

Har, an attorney, successfully fought for stricter drunken driving penalties, such as increasing the license revocation period to two years — up from one year — for suspects, like her, who refuse to submit to a blood-alcohol test.

Her driver’s license was revoked for two years March 25, and the revocation was affirmed last week by the Administrative Driver’s License Revocation Office, which is separate from criminal court proceedings.

ADLRO officials Tuesday did not immediately respond to a request of Har’s license revocation case file, which could indicate whether she has been allowed to drive since her arrest under conditional requirements, such as an interlock system that Har also championed.

Attorneys who are arrested for any offense also must report their arrest to the Hawaii State Bar Association, said Patrick McPherson, a DUI defense attorney who worked with Har and the Hawaii chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving to stiffen Hawaii’s penalties for drunk driving.

“With something like a DUI, there’s always a concern about impairment, and the Bar Association has programs for substance abuse,” McPherson said. “I don’t think anyone would lose their license (to practice law) on a first offense. With a DUI they’re more likely to be recommended to treatment or an assessment.”

Had the House decided to pursue an investigation of Har, McPherson said, the special committee would likely subpoena all of the evidence of her arrest, including officers’ testimony, police reports and body cam footage to determine whether Har had behaved in a way the committee found amounted to “conduct unbecoming a member of the House of Representatives,” McPherson said.