By William Cole
Advertiser Staff Writer
Former state Sen. Marshall Ige is expected to plead either guilty or no contest this morning to a single campaign spending count consolidated from seven 1999 charges, prosecutors said.
But the worst of Ige’s legal troubles will not be over. He still faces unrelated felony charges of first-degree theft, money laundering and attempted tax evasion.
Deputy Attorney General Kurt Spohn said an agreement calls for Ige to enter the plea today in District Court to a charge of certification of inaccurate campaign spending reports, a misdemeanor.
If Ige says he is guilty, Spohn said he will not contest a defense motion for a deferred acceptance of the guilty plea, which would give the former legislator a chance to expunge the charge after a year’s time. If Ige pleads no contest, Spohn said he will fight deferred acceptance.
Spohn said he is seeking the "more resounding acceptance" of responsibility versus a no-contest plea and possible claim by Ige that he just didn’t want to fight the charges anymore. In either case, Spohn said, "if he gets up there and enters a plea, I think we will have accomplished the only thing we ever wanted to accomplish — to establish Marshall Ige violated the campaign spending law."
Ige’s lawyer, Michael McCarthy, called the charges "piddly" misdemeanor accusations which are "the same thing as a parking ticket."
Spohn said all seven charges are related to two issues. According to prosecutors, an $18,262 debt to Ryan’s Graphics for printing jobs in Ige’s failed 1994 bid for the Senate was paid by an architectural firm, but the printing costs were not reported as an expenditure, and the payment not reported as a contribution or a loan.
The criminal complaint said the former director of Bishop Estate’s government relations department told Ryan Graphics to send a phony bill for Ige’s debt to the architectural firm.
The second issue, Spohn said, was $22,500 Ige reported as coming as loans from relatives — money the relatives denied giving.
Ige is expected to admit guilt or plead no contest to reporting violations for both sums, Spohn said.
McCarthy disputed Spohn’s characterization of the amended complaint as encompassing the same accusations. Among the charges expected to be dropped is a count of lying to investigators, he said.
"It started as seven counts, and now we’ve got one count," McCarthy said. Ige also was charged with not reporting a campaign expense, and not listing a contribution.
Ige is scheduled to stand trial May 14 on separate charges of theft, money laundering and attempted tax evasion for his dealings with an elderly Beverly Hills couple and Punalu‘u farmer.
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