Employee to testify against child support agency

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

An investigator in the state Child Support Enforcement Agency will be allowed to testify about problems at the agency when a trial begins next month to determine whether most child support payments are sent out on time, Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna ruled yesterday.

Under state and federal law, the agency usually has two business days to log payments made by parents who owe child support and send a check to the parent or legal guardian owed money.

Lawyers Francis O'Brien and Christopher Ferrara of Honolulu and Timothy Cohelan of San Diego claim in a lawsuit that the Child Support Enforcement Agency is so overwhelmed by poor bookkeeping, it cannot say where it got almost $7.5 million in three different bank accounts, or to whom the money is owed.

The lawyers represent a group made up of people ordered to make child support payments or receiving them.

The trial is set for Sept. 10.

Deputy Attorneys General Charles Fell and Diane Taira, representing the state agency, said in court filings and statements yesterday that the agency, a division of the state attorney general's office, was in "substantial compliance" with the two-day turnaround requirement.

They contend that a review of agency accounts by certified public accountant Stanley Wachi showed that only about $440,000 had been sent out past the 48-hour turnaround.

Plaintiffs' attorneys are using the much higher figure, derived by their expert witness Steven Sakamaki, also a CPA. Sakamaki was retained by former court-appointed master Colbert Matsumoto in his review of Bishop Estate.

McKenna yesterday denied a request by the state's attorneys to bar Sakamaki from testifying because of "questionable methodology" used to arrive at conclusions about the agency's accounting practices.

The judge also rejected a request by the state lawyers to keep James Aughenbaugh, an investigator assigned to the agency's office in Hilo, from testifying during the trial. Fell argued that Aughenbaugh's name was not on the list of witness submitted by the plaintiffs before an April 22 deadline, and said he and Taira had not learned of plans to call Aughenbaugh as a witness until July 23.

McKenna denied the request after Ferrara told her that Aughenbaugh had "called us out of the blue" last month to volunteer as a witness, even while working at the agency. Ferrara did not say specifically what Aughenbaugh might be called on to testify about.

In other rulings, McKenna denied requests by the state's attorneys to keep audits highly critical of agency bookkeeping from being introduced at trial, and to keep several child support recipients who had problems with the agency from testifying.