Jury selection in the trial of Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi will start the week of Oct. 10, a clerk for Honolulu Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario said Monday.
The Oahu judge will hear Kenoi’s trial since all Big Island judges recused themselves from the case. The trial, originally set for July, will be in Hilo unless Kenoi asks for, and is granted, a change of venue.
Jury selection could be lengthy, given the mayor’s high profile and statewide media coverage of his legal troubles.
Kenoi is charged with two counts of second-degree theft, three counts each of third-degree theft and tampering with a government record, and a single count of making a false statement under oath.
The charges follow a yearlong probe by the state attorney general’s office into Kenoi’s use of a county credit card known as a purchasing card, or pCard. The investigation started after Big Island newspapers reported Kenoi used his pCard to pay an $892 tab at a Honolulu hostess bar.
Other personal items charged were a surfboard, bicycle, campaign expenses and bar association fees.
In total, the mayor made almost $130,000 in charges on the card by the time the hostess bar charge came to light.
Kenoi reimbursed the county for $31,112.59, about $9,500 of it after the newspapers published stories examining his pCard use.
The most serious offenses, two counts of second-degree theft, are Class C felonies that each carry a possible five-year prison term and $10,000 fine upon conviction. The other charges are misdemeanors and petty misdemeanors, with penalties of a year or less in jail.
Kenoi will finish his second term of office in early December and is prohibited by law from seeking a third consecutive term. Thirteen individuals filed nomination papers seeking to succeed Kenoi. They include former Mayor Harry Kim, who lost narrowly to Kenoi in a bid to reclaim office in 2012; Wally Lau, former managing director in Kenoi’s administration; and Pete Hoffmann, former County Council chairman.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
