Hawaii state Rep. Sharon Har skirts question about why she went out during COVID-19

State Rep. Sharon Har has yet to explain to a special House committee why she was out at night during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 while taking prescription medication for a respiratory ailment, drank alcohol and was subsequently arrested — and later acquitted — of drunken driving.

In a written response to the committee this week, Har did not explain why she went out the night of Feb. 22, 2021. She also avoided providing a direct answer to a second question by committee member Rep. Scot Matayo­shi (D, Kaneohe-­Maunawili-Kailua) about whether the prescription included a warning about alcohol consumption.

“The medication was an old prescription and had expired,” Har wrote in response to Matayoshi’s questions through her criminal defense attorney, Howard Luke. “I had taken the medication much earlier that day. I did not anticipate that it might still have an effect.”

She did not elaborate.

Har was arrested after leaving AnyPlace Cocktail Lounge on McCully Street. Officers found her alone in her 2019 Mercedes-Benz in the wrong direction of one-way traffic on South Beretania Street at Piikoi Street.

Her case was dismissed and she was acquitted Jan. 10 after Luke 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.

The House committee is scheduled to reconvene today but it’s unclear if Har’s written responses provide enough information for the committee to decide whether she violated the legislative body’s code of conduct, which requires members to “conduct themselves in a respectful manner befitting the office with which they as elected officials have been entrusted, respecting and complying with the law and acting at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity of the House.”

The code also requires that lawmakers not “lend the prestige of public office to advance the private interests of themselves or others; nor should members convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to unduly influence public business pending before them.”

Har (D, Kapolei-Makakilo) did not attend the first hearing looking into her actions held last week.

Luke, her attorney, said then that a statement Har allegedly made at the time of her arrest — “Do you know who I am?”— was contained in a police report by an officer who eventually made three different statements about the level of alcohol odor in Har’s Mercedes-Benz.

But in her written statement, Har attributed the comment to the media.

“The statement, which was attributed to me by the media, was wildly taken out of context and misstated what I actually said,” Har wrote. “I overheard one of the officers say, ‘she is in the House.’ I was embarrassed, as any person would be in that situation, then replied, ‘I am so sorry, because you know who I am.’ I firmly maintain that this statement was not made to improperly influence any of the officers present.”

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 drunken driving suspects, such as Har, who refuse to submit to a blood- alcohol test.

Har’s driver’s license was revoked for two years in March 2021 by the Administrative Driver’s License Revocation Office in proceedings that are separate from drunken driving criminal cases.

She told the committee that the revocation office required her to use an ignition interlock system in her vehicle for two years, a program Har also championed.

Finally, Har told the committee her respiratory symptoms were not a result “of an infectious disease but rather from an ongoing illness that produced a persistent, long-term cough. If I had any suspicion whatsoever that my illness was contagious, I would not have had dinner in a public place. Moreover, my understanding is that Anyplace Lounge was in full compliance with the health guidelines in place at the time. At trial, the restaurant staff testified about their efforts to keep their customers safe.”