County ordered to pay ex-Maui prosecutor $75K

A federal jury Wednesday ruled in favor of a former Maui prosecutor who sued the county for violating his right to due process, awarding him $75,000 in damages.

The suit, filed in District Court in April 2021, alleged that the County Council and Maui Mayor Michael Victorino wrongly terminated and violated the due process rights of Donald Guzman as the county’s prosecuting attorney after an investigation found he had violated the “Violence in the Workplace Action Plan.”

Guzman was “extremely happy” with the verdict, Megan Kau, an attorney who represented him at trial, said in an interview. “They awarded him $75,000 for emotional distress due to the violation of due process,” she said.

Calls to the County of Maui’s Department of the Corporation Counsel were not returned.

According to Guzman’s suit, the violation occurred Sept. 15, 2020, when he grabbed a printed-out email from a lower-ranking attorney in the department. The attorney, Leslee Matthews, had sent the email two weeks prior to the whole office “questioning the Department’s COVID-19 protocols,” the suit said.

According to the outside investigation, Guzman had sent a departmentwide email “asking employees not to start a panic.” Matthews replied, copying the rest of the office, “I don’t think anyone is intentionally trying to cause a panic as much as we may just be very concerned for our healthy (sic) and safety of those we come home to everyday. We still do not have a work from home mandate as we did when the pandemic was not as severe as it is now.” Guzman wrote back to her individually, “Be careful on how you respond to me!” according to the investigation. He told investigators that a department policy required employees to obtain permission to send officewide emails.

“Ms. Matthews speculated that Mr. Guzman wanted to retaliate against her because her e-mail bruised Mr. Guzman’s ego,” the investigation said. A call to Matthews was not returned.

Matthews met with Guzman on Sept. 15, 2020, and when she attempted to hand him a copy of her original email, she told investigators he “ripped (the email) out of (her) hand, crumpled it up, slammed his hand on the table, and started yelling.”

“The manner in which he communicated to Matthews at the meeting was hostile and/or threatening to her,” his suit said. The incident involved “mostly raised voices” but no physical contact, profanity or slurs, it said.

Matthews left the meeting and reported the “explosive incident” to another attorney, saying she didn’t want to get “physically hurt,” the investigation said. Matthews told investigators that Guzman was “still so angry, threatening, (and) out of control.”

Guzman met with Victorino on Oct. 16, 2020, to discuss the investigation’s findings, but he “believed his ability to explain his side was stifled by Mayor Victorino,” the suit said.

He blamed the incident on the fact that he suffers from diabetic neuropathy and type 2 diabetes, “compounded by the stress of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the management of employees.”

Victorino told Guzman “to either resign or be terminated,” the suit said. The mayor then submitted a resolution to remove Guzman to the Maui County Council, which held an open committee meeting Nov. 5, 2020, to discuss it.

At least nine people testified on their interactions with Guzman dating back to 2014, when he was on the County Council, the suit said. They said that Guzman “targets women for violence,” “committed prosecutorial misconduct,” “allowed a meth lab to operate” in a housing complex and holds prejudices against Native Hawaiians — claims that Guzman denied. The Council voted to remove him.

Guzman said in his suit that these “one-sided” and “biased” allegations did not pertain to the investigation at hand and violated due process and his right to privacy. He was afforded no opportunity to respond or refute the accusations, the suit said.