Posted on: Saturday, December 8, 2001

Yoshimura may lose law license for a year

By Vicki Viotti
and Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff WriterS

Yoshimura: Less than candid about car accident

The lawyer for City Council member Jon Yoshimura yesterday questioned whether a request to suspend him from the practice of law for lying about a 1999 traffic accident is politically motivated, but disciplinary officials deny any such motivation.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel that oversees conduct by Hawai'i attorneys is recommending that Yoshimura be suspended from practicing law for a year and a month.

The office is appealing to the Disciplinary Board a recommendation by a hearing committee that Yoshimura be suspended for a month.

The 18-member Disciplinary Board will make its own recommendation to the Hawai'i Supreme Court, which ultimately will decide what punishment to impose on Yoshimura.

Yoshimura, who is running for lieutenant governor, declined to comment on any of the recommendations or his lawyer's remarks. On previous occasions, Yoshimura has said he is inactive as an attorney and has not practiced law recently.

The case involves Yoshimura's driving away after hitting a parked car near Ward Centre July 13, 1999. After the accident, Yoshimura insisted that he was leaving directly from work and that he thought he backed into a utility pole. He paid a $35 fine for leaving the scene of an accident.

In August, Yoshimura held a news conference and said he had a drink at a restaurant before hitting the car, but said he was afraid what people would think if he told the truth.

Yoshimura's attorney, William Harrison, yesterday questioned whether there are political motivations for the timing of the Office of Disciplinary Counsel's appeal and its release to the media. "I'm hoping that they're not motivated by politics," he said. "He (Yoshimura) is running for office. I hope they're not going about this to discredit him.

Harrison said Yoshimura in August made "a public admission in front of the media, admitting his mistake, and he apologized to his constituents.

"We really want to put this behind us."

He said the disciplinary counsel's office presented its side to the hearing committee. "They had a full opportunity to present their side, and they're unhappy with the decision," Harrison said. "The committee has been given clear and convincing evidence, and have responded... it's going to be hard for the counsel to get the (disciplinary) board to rule otherwise."

Assistant Disciplinary Counsel Brian Means said the office did not send out a press release on the Yoshimura case even though it has on other cases. "It becomes public once the hearing committee files a report recommending public discipline," he said.

The committee made its recommendation Nov. 2.

"I'm sure Mr. Harrison is unhappy with our decision to appeal it to the disciplinary board and ultimately we'll wait and see what the Supreme Court decides to do," Means said.

The committee noted in recommending a one-month suspension that Yoshimura recently recanted his false statements. "Respondent was sincere and remorseful and no doubt has suffered substantial embarrassment as a result of his conduct," the committee said.

The hearing committee concluded in its recommendation for the one-month sanction that Yoshimura's conduct "reflects adversely on the position of public trust he held."

But the committee judged Yoshimura's "lies" more severely.

"Instead of being forthright, (Yoshimura) repeatedly lied... about the events surrounding the incident," the committee said in its finding. "The lies were compounded. That is deceit... forthrightness and honesty are the principles of integrity and the very foundation of the legal profession. (Yoshimura's) conduct undermined that foundation."

However, the disciplinary counsel's office argued that a month's suspension would communicate neither the seriousness of the misconduct nor show the community that Yoshimura's "dishonesty and lies will not be tolerated."

The appeal petition quotes Thomas Carlyle, 19th-century essayist and historian, questioning whether "there can be a more horrible object in existence than an eloquent man not speaking the truth."

The accident and his statements were not Yoshimura's first political misstep. His tenure on the City Council also has been marred by controversy over his expenditures of campaign money, disputes that led him in August to pay the state Campaign Spending Commission a fine of $3,532.