Posted at 12:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 31, 2001
Kahapea sentenced to 10 years
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
Former city housing official Michael Kahapea was sentenced today to 10 years in prison after pleading no contest to six counts of theft and money laundering.
Kahapea, 58, pleaded no contest in June to stealing $1.54 million from three different city projects over a nine-year period. Under a plea agreement, Kahapea was sentenced by Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto to 10 years in prison.
Sakamoto ruled that the 10-year term will run concurrently with a 50-year prison term Kahapea is serving after his conviction last year of theft, money laundering and other charges. A Circuit Court jury convicted Kahapea on charges he stole $5.8 million of city relocation money for the 'Ewa Villages Revitalization Project.
In return for Kahapea's plea, the prosecution agreed not to go to trial on an additional 25 criminal counts brought against Kahapea in three separate indictments.
Kahapea pleaded no contest to defrauding the city out of about $800,000 between December 1990 and October 1992 by creating fake contracts and companies to relocate a meat-packing company and tire sales outlet from property fronting Middle Street that was bought by the city to build a new bus maintenance facility.
Kahapea also admitted his involvement in a scheme to cheat taxpayers out of an additional $600,000 between October 1988 and May 1991 by rigging relocation contracts in connection with the city's West Loch housing project.
In the third case, Kahapea was accused of stealing about $140,000 from the city in the form of quarters fed into coin-operated laundry equipment at two different city apartment projects between January 1992 and October 1997.
During the 'Ewa Villages trial, witnesses said Kahapea gambled away much of the stolen city money in Las Vegas, taking trips there almost weekly over a series of years.
Still at issue, however, is how much money Kahapea will have to repay to the city. Prosecutors are asking that Kahapea pay $3.7 million in restitution for the 'Ewa Villages scandal and $866,275 for the three other cases.
Kahapea attorney Donald Wilkerson is challenging the city's figures and said prosecutors have provided no evidence to show that Kahapea directly benefited by these amounts.
