Mayor Billy Kenoi’s fate was placed in the hands of a dozen of his own constituents Monday following closing arguments during his criminal trial in Hilo Circuit Court.
Mayor Billy Kenoi’s fate was placed in the hands of a dozen of his own constituents Monday following closing arguments during his criminal trial in Hilo Circuit Court.
The mayor, who will leave office in December, is charged with two counts of second-degree theft — a felony punishable by up to five years in prison — two counts of third-degree theft and one count of false swearing for alleged misuse of a county-issued credit card, known as a pCard.
No verdict was reached Monday. Jurors will return for deliberation Tuesday morning.
The card is authorized only for county business, but state prosecutors say his transactions crossed the line between private and public expenses through the purchase of “exorbitant” amounts of alcohol and by booking two nights at a local resort for a nephew as a wedding gift.
“Mayor Kenoi determined if he was going to pay back those personal purchases. He and he alone,” said Kevin Takata, state deputy attorney general, adding that the mayor “lived above the law.”
Defense attorney Todd Eddins said the mayor purchased alcohol to thank volunteers or during legitimate meetings on Hawaii Island and the mainland that occurred mostly after hours.
Eddins said that’s allowed by the county code and that Kenoi paid those charges back even though staff told him he didn’t have to. Personal expenses were flagged as “miscellaneous county to be reimbursed,” he said.
“The man pays the money out of his own pocket to the county … yet the money he took from his family to give to the county is now somehow evidence of him taking money from the county?” he said to the jury. “Is this the first case in the history of the United States in theft prosecutions where the victims, you folks, actually owe the accused?”
Takata said the mayor reimbursed the county for many expenses that are part of his criminal case in response to records requests from the media.
Looking to Kenoi, the prosecutor said: “He said he paid the county back. The question is when, Billy, when? When were you going to pay the county back if the media didn’t bust you?”
Eddins said media requests were used as “markers” to make additional payments.
He also chided the prosecutors for making the allegations and for having a “puritan” approach to drinking. He said the “Big Island heart and soul” mayor was never focused on money and later told jurors that they were “lucky to have him.”
“It’s outrageous, it’s deplorable, it’s shameless,” Eddins said. “This is the United States. He’s the elected mayor of a major municipality. This is not Kazakhstan. This is not a banana republic.”
Facing the prosecution desk, he asked: “Why, Kevin? Why?”
Prosecutors say Kenoi didn’t submit receipts for the 15 pCard transactions that are part of the criminal case.
Receipts the state uncovered during its year-long investigation often showed large amounts of alcohol were purchased.
One receipt showed he spent $600 — including tip — on dozens of shots, cocktails and beers at a Washington, D.C., restaurant.
Eddins said he was hosting congressional aides to build closer relationships with staff at the nation’s capitol, which paid off for the county in terms of better access to lawmakers.
He said the mayor was using his entertainment budget within his discretion.
The 15 pCard transactions total $4,129.31 and occurred from 2011-14.
Kenoi reimbursed the county for 14 of them, though months or years after the purchases were made.
The one that wasn’t reimbursed – a $200 bill at Volcano House restaurant — was a legitimate county expense, the mayor said during testimony last week. Kenoi hosted relatives of the CEO of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and he described the June 30, 2014, transaction on his pCard summary as “Luncheon with U.S. Conference of Mayors visitors.”
“What’s $200 out of his entertainment budget to show the spirit of aloha to these people?” said Eddins, adding they were important people.
Said Takata: “It’s fine to show aloha for friends, but do it on your own card.”
Karen Teshima, one of Kenoi’s executive assistants, used her pCard to book a $652.40 helicopter ride described as for U.S. Conference of Mayors visitors in July 2014, according to county records. That charge is not part of the criminal case.
Kenoi acknowledged one of the transactions was a personal expense.
In June 2011, he used the pCard to book a two-night stay at Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel for a nephew and his wife after they got married. According to prosecutors, Kenoi took 250 days to reimburse the county for the $292.60 bill.
Takata said the reimbursement occurred shortly after West Hawaii Today reporter Nancy Cook Lauer submitted a request for copies of his pCard records.
“He took over eight months to repay the county for a wedding gift for his nephew,” Takata said. “And two days after the media busted him. What does that tell you? Intent to deprive.”
Takata said other reimbursements, which occurred between four and 26 months after the transactions, happened at the same time as records requests from the Big Island journalist.
But at least nine of those transactions were left off a pCard summary the county administration provided her in lieu of the mayor’s records.
Kenoi testified last week that he thought he didn’t have to disclose them if he paid the county back.
Eddins said the mayor did that to avoid what he saw as unwarranted scrutiny by local media, which he called “vicious and hostile.”
“It was just not worth engaging in battles over the proper meaningful role over the authority he has … to spend his entertainment budget,” he said.
In April 2015, the state Office of Information Practices said it was “generally advising agencies to disclose unredacted P-Card records to requesters, because all purchases made on the cards are supposed to be justified as work-related expenses.”
The month prior Cook Lauer reported that Kenoi used his pCard to cover a nearly $900 tab at a Honolulu hostess bar after an anonymous source sent her a copy of his records. That prompted the investigation and the state revoking the mayor’s pCard.
The hostess bar charge was paid back and is not part of the criminal case.
Kenoi caught a break last week when Judge Dexter Del Rosario dismissed three counts of tampering with a government record due to lack of evidence.
The mayor reimbursed the county for $22,292 of his approximately $130,000 in pCard charges between January 2009 and March 2015. Another $9,500 was paid back after Big Island newspapers published a story on the hostess bar expense.
Kenoi said then he made the additional payments to err on the side of caution.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.