Yoshimura faces suspension as lawyer
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer
The state office that oversees conduct by Hawai'i attorneys yesterday recommended that City Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura be suspended from practicing law for six months for lying about a 1999 traffic accident.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
The Office of Disciplinary Counsel sent its recommendation to the Hawai'i Supreme Court, which will decide what discipline, if any, is appropriate.
Honolulu City Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura, right, attended the Office of Disciplinary Counsel hearing with his attorney William Harrison.
The case involves a July 13, 1999, incident in which Yoshimura hit a parked car near Ward Centre and drove away. He had insisted that he thought he hit a utility pole and had not been drinking before the accident.
But in August 2001, he admitted that he did have a drink before hitting the car and had lied about it. He apologized to voters and his Council colleagues.
Yoshimura, a Democrat, has said he is planning to run for lieutenant governor. Yesterday, he said he is inactive as an attorney.
Assistant Disciplinary Counsel Brian Means asked the office's disciplinary board to recommend a suspension of one year and one day, because that would require Yoshimura to apply for reinstatement as a lawyer.
"A dishonest man should not be entitled to practice law," Means said. "Mr. Yoshimura is a dishonest man." However, a hearing committee for the Office of Disciplinary Counsel had recommended only a 30-day suspension.
Yoshimura told the board he realizes he is held to a higher standard as an attorney and as an elected official.
"I take full responsibility for what I did," he said. "I made a mistake. I'm sorry."
Means said Yoshimura's dishonesty emerged in three ways: he left the scene of the accident without finding the owner of the vehicle he struck or leaving a note; he failed to notify the police; he lied to reporters and to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel three times in letters.
Yoshimura responded: "I am an honest man. I just can't believe the damage that this incident, this stupid incident that I got myself into, I can't believe the damage it has done to my reputation."
Yoshimura said he believed the incident has made him a better person.
"Whatever it does to my political career, so be it."
