Hawaii County has agreed to pay $135,000 to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by two former employees who said former county officials besmirched their reputations by telling a newspaper they’d been fired.
Ten years after former Elections Administrator Pat Nakamoto and elections clerk Shyla Ayau sued former County Council Chairman Dominic Yagong, former County Clerk Jamae Kawauchi and a private investigator, the county agreed to settle for $135,000 to be divided as Nakamoto and Ayau saw fit, according to the settlement agreement obtained by West Hawaii Today under state open records laws. Nakamoto retired from the county in December.
The settlement agreement, accepted by Third Circuit Court Judge Wendy DeWeese who dismissed the case March 9, covered only the county and Yagong in his official capacity. Another stipulation for dismissal of the case against Yagong in his personal capacity, dated May 19, has been signed off by all parties and filed with the court but not yet been approved by the judge.
“My clients are glad to finally have this resolved after so many years of having to litigate this,” Ted Hong, attorney for Nakamoto and Ayau, said Wednesday. “They can now move on with their lives.”
The case went up on appeal to the Hawaii Supreme Court, which cleared Kawauchi, saying the comments attributed to her in a 2012 newspaper article weren’t defamatory because they were true. The Circuit Court later dismissed the case against private investigator Corporate Specialized Investigations and Intelligence Services LLC following a settlement agreement.
Nakamoto and Ayau sued after statements by Yagong and Kawauchi were quoted in a Jan. 12, 2012, article in Big Island newspapers naming four employees who had been fired for unspecified violations of county policy. In the article, written by former Hawaii Tribune-Herald reporter Jason Armstrong, Kawauchi identifies the four who were fired.
Yagong and Kawauchi were investigating reports that county employees were hosting parties with alcohol at the county’s Elections Division warehouse. The county code forbids alcohol use on county property. The two were also looking into reports that the warehouse manager, Glen Shikuma, was running a private sign-making business in the county’s leased warehouse building, which would also have been against the county code.
Investigators turned up evidence of empty, full and partially consumed alcohol containers, as well as sign-making equipment Shikuma said he was storing at the warehouse, but claimed he never used on county property. After union grievance hearings, Nakamoto received a 10-day suspension and was reinstated. Shikuma died of an aneurysm before completing the union arbitration process.
A call to Yagong’s attorney, Francis Jung, were not returned by press-time Wednesday.