A trial to determine whether former Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Keith Kaneshiro, prominent political donor Dennis Mitsunaga and others engaged in legal campaign financing or a pay-to-prosecute scheme starts Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
Kaneshiro, Mitsunaga, and four Mitsunaga & Associates executives were indicted in June 2022 for allegedly conspiring to charge a former Mitsunaga employee with felony theft for exposing the company to liability and keeping some money from jobs done on company time with company resources.
They face federal charges of conspiracy, honest services wire fraud, and federal program bribery.
Mitsunaga, 78; Kaneshiro, 72; Terri Ann Otani, 66; Aaron Shunichi Fujii, 64; Chad Michael McDonald, 50; and Sheri Jean Tanaka, 41, all entered pleas of not guilty.
The U.S. Attorneys from San Diego prosecuting the case did not respond to Honolulu Star-Advertiser requests for comment.
Nina Marino, Mitsunaga’s attorney, noted her client “has a “lifelong history of supporting democratic candidates and community-based causes.
“The government’s outrageous efforts to criminalize campaign donations as bribery are entirely without any factual basis and fly in the face of constitutionally protected free speech,” Marino said in a statement to the Star-Advertiser. “Mr. Mitsunaga looks forward to a full acquittal of these false charges and to the rightful restoration of his good name.”
“There are two sides to every story, and trials should be decided in the courtroom based on the evidence, not based on pretrial publicity,” Thomas Otake, Chad McDonald’s attorney, said in a statement to the Star-Advertiser. “If jurors keep an open mind and not pre-judge the case, I am confident they will see that the evidence does not support the governments false narrative of guilt.”
Fujii’s attorney, Andrew Kennedy, noted that “campaign contributions are constitutionally protected acts under the First Amendment.”
“Aaron Fujii has been a respected member of the community for decades. It’s unfortunate he is being put through this. We look forward to presenting our side of the story to the jury,” Kennedy said in a statement to the Star-Advertiser.
Otani’s attorney, Doris Lum, told the Star-Advertiser in a statement that her client “was a diligent employee who worked hard at the same company her entire life.”
“Over the years, she volunteered her free time helping candidates with their campaigns. Ms. Otani also donated money to many candidates,” said Lum. “As is the case with others who make monetary political contributions, Ms. Otani believed this was a good way of bettering her community by supporting individuals who shared the same ideals, beliefs, and goals.”
The defense team includes attorneys Birney B. Bervar, Jennifer Lieser, Jessica Ann Szemkow, John M. Schum, Ryan Mitsos, Andrew S. Cowan, Crystal K. Glendon and Mark Mermelstein.
Between Nov. 8, 2006, and Dec. 31, 2023, Dennis Mitsunaga, founder of Mitsunaga & Associates Inc., an architecture and engineering firm that does work in every county and for the U.S Department of Defense in Korea, gave $192,190 to mayors, governors, members of Congress, state House speakers, state Senate presidents, City Council chairs, and county, state and federal candidates.
The vast majority of Mitsunaga’s contributions were to Democrats.
His daughter has given $112,600, his wife donated $116,450, and company employees $41,025. Mitsunaga’s family members and employees have made 566 donations to political campaigns during that same time frame.
Throughout Kaneshiro’s decade as Honolulu prosecuting attorney, he collected $325,897.19 from 993 donations.
The trial focuses on about $45,000 in donations given to Kaneshiro’s campaign in between October 2012 and October 2016.
On Oct. 4, 2012, Mitsunaga, Kaneshiro, Tanaka and Kaneshiro’s assistant allegedly met to try and get Kaneshiro to prosecute former employee Laurel Mau. Mitsunaga, Otani, Fujii, McDonald, Tanaka and other Mitsunaga family members and employees donated to Kaneshiro’s campaign following the meeting.
The allegations are made by the same federal prosecutors who convicted former Honolulu Police Chief Louis M. Kealoha and his wife, former Honolulu Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha.
The government’s allegations are connected to Mitsunaga & Associates’ treatment of Mau, who sued the company after she was let go in November 2011 when they accused her of working more than 20 side jobs on company time.
Mitsunaga and his employees allegedly tried to block Mau’s applications for unemployment benefits, for which she was later deemed eligible to receive. In an August 2012 lawsuit, Mau accused Mitsunaga & Associates of violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.
In July 2014, a federal judge overseeing Mau’s lawsuit and several counterclaims by Mitsunaga & Associates found no liability other than a “breach of loyalty” claim against Mau. The company prevailed and the judge awarded Mitsunaga & Associates $1.
During that civil trial, details emerged of Mau allegedly using company time, resources, and applying for permits for work where all the money did not go to the company.
Federal prosecutors allege Kaneshiro prosecuted Mau for four counts of second-degree theft at the firm’s request, two years after receiving the $45,000 in contributions, in December 2014, according to state court records.
The thefts complaints against Mau were made to the Honolulu Police Department in 2012. Mau was charged two years later in 2014.
When one deputy prosecutor told Kaneshiro that there was not enough evidence to prosecute Mau, Kaneshiro allegedly reassigned the case to another prosecutor, who charged Mau, according to the federal court documents.
In July 2017 the charges against Mau were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they could not be refiled.
Kaneshiro served as city prosecutor from 1988 to 1996 and again from 2010 to 2018 before he went on paid leave. He didn’t run for reelection in 2020, and his term expired in January 2021.
The defense plans to question 10 witnesses while federal prosecutors plan to call 77 witnesses to the stand, according to federal court records. The defense plans to enter exhibits into evidence and the prosecution lists more than 300 exhibits.
Pre-trial contentions
Prior to the trial’s start, 513 documents have been entered into the court record and the judge originally handling the case recused himself. Senior Judge J. Michael Seabright will not disclose his reasons but on Feb. 23 Sheri Tanaka appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathaniel M. Cousins after the U.S. Probation and Parole Office asked for a review of her release.
The hearing was requested after agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Arizona and Hawaii reportedly were told by an informant that Tanaka allegedly paid cash to someone to kill Seabright and the government’s lead attorney, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat.
Wheat’s team of prosecutors include Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Chiang, Colin M. McDonald, Janaki Gandhi Chopra, Joseph J.M. Orabona and Shauna Prewitt.
The investigation of the alleged murder-for-hire plot began in December, and a search warrant was executed at a Honolulu business Jan. 23. Tanaka’s electronic devices were seized along with other evidence.
Judge Cousins denied the government’s attempt to revoke Tanaka’s bail.
Tanaka, an attorney, has not been arrested in connection with the murder-for-hire allegation. She remains free ahead of her Tuesday trial in the conspiracy case. Her attorneys have said Tanaka did not hire anyone to assassinate anyone, and was instead the victim of an extortion scheme by a federal government informant.
On Friday, Senior U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess, who came in from Alaska to manage the trial, issued orders on three motions on the admissibility of evidence.
In the two publicly available orders from Burgess issued Friday, the judge denied the defense’s requests to exclude evidence.
In one order, the defense had asked the judge to exclude an Aug. 7, 2014, emailed complaint from Otani to the Hawaii Department of Taxation alleging that Mau committed tax fraud by “failing to report income,” according to federal court documents.”
The defendants also requested to exclude Mitsunaga & Associates’ police complaint against Stanford Masui, who sued the company.
During oral arguments, defense attorneys asserted that both categories of “other act” evidence are “being offered to show [defendants’] propensity … for litigiousness” and that “the actual nexus between the crime alleged [and the other acts] are not … sufficiently intertwined” to warrant their admission, accordant to federal court records.
Defense attorneys argued they are not “necessary to complete the story for the government.”
Federal prosecutors argued that both acts are “inextricably intertwined by [defendants’] own writing and their own making,” according to federal court records, and represent the “beginning of the criminal prosecution” of Mau, and are admissible.
Judge Burgess agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice’s assertions and denied the defendants’ motion.
Burgess also denied the defendants’ attempt to exclude Otani’s “purported violation of campaign finance laws” and Otani’s “gambling records from January 2010 through March 2021.”
Defense attorneys also tried to exclude Otani’s “obstruction of the grand jury investigation by … allegedly lying to the grand jury; and … allegedly exerting pressure” on a witnesses testimony to the grand jury.
Otani questioned the relevance of “evidence that she bought “$251,000 worth of chips at the Bellagio over the last 10 years” which was followed by questions before a federal grand jury about “political contributions she made in the last decade to a variety of politicians.”
Otani argued that the “danger of unfair prejudice that the jury will be biased against her” because she has been “an avid gambler for over a decade.”
Federal prosecutors argue that Otani’s “gambling history” is “inextricably intertwined with the charged conspiracy” because alongside the evidence of her annual salary and political donations, it demonstrates and explains her use of “straw donors” and bundling for political contributions, “including to Kaneshiro,” according to federal court records.
Prosecutors are not criticizing her for being a gambler, they argued, but that the evidence establishes Otani “is not contributing funds single-handedly” because the “numbers do not add up,” between her Mitsunaga & Associates salary, gambling chip purchases, and amount of political donations she made.
Burgess agreed again with the prosecution, who said the Otani evidence shows that she is participating in the “coordinated donation apparatus” central to the charged conspiracy.
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THE DEFENDANTS
Keith Kaneshiro:
The former city prosecutor is accused by the U.S. Department of Justice of filing felony theft charges in 2014 against former Mitsunaga employee Laurel Mau in exchange for $45,000 in campaign contributions from Mitsunaga and his employees in October 2012. The contribution came two months after he allegedly met with Mitsunaga who allegedly asked Kaneshiro to prosecute Mau.
His attorneys argue that the contributions are legal and not connected to theft charges that came two years after Kaneshiro received the contributions.
Dennis Mitsunaga:
The founder of Mitsunaga & Associates Inc. is accused of conspiring to have a former employee charged with felony theft in exchange for $45,000 in campaign cash.Laurel Mau was fired in 2011, filed a lawsuit against Mitsunaga’s company in August 2012, and Mitsunaga allegedly asked Kaneshiro in October 2012 to charge Mau with four counts of felony theft.
His lawyer says the charges are baseless and that Mitsunaga has a long history of supporting candidates.
Aaron Fujii:
As executive vice president and chief operating officer of Mitsunaga & Associates, Fujii is accused of helping deny Mau unemployment benefits and filing a police report accusing Mau and attorney Stanford H. Masui of theft.
His attorney argues that his actions and campaign contributions were legal.
Chad McDonald:
The Mitsunaga & Associates employee is accused of conspiring to donate money to Kaneshiro in exchange for Mau’s prosecution and helping bundle money for Kaneshiro’s campaign.
His attorney argues that jurors won’t believe the U.S. Department of Justice’s “false narrative” of guilt.
Terri Ann Otani:
The Mitsunaga relative and former Mitsunaga & Associates corporate secretary and office manager is accused of facilitating the meetings between Kaneshiro about Mau. She is also accused of bundling money for Kaneshiro.
Her attorney argues her donations and volunteer work for multiple campaigns is her way of helping build a better Hawaii.
Sheri Jean Tanaka:
The attorney who represented Mitsunaga & Associates in civil, administrative and criminal matters, is accused of helping deny Mau unemployment benefits and sitting in and facilitating the meetings where Kaneshiro and Mitsunaga allegedly discussed Mau’s prosecution.
Her attorneys maintain her innocence and that her actions were part of her duties as an attorney.
