Harris campaign probe goes to city prosecutor
| • | Campaign faces storm that may defy 'spin' |
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer
The state Campaign Spending Commission voted yesterday to request a criminal investigation of Mayor Jeremy Harris and three leaders of his 2000 re-election campaign, despite heated protests that the panel had produced no evidence of wrongdoing.
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The commission acted on a complaint by its executive director, Robert Watada, that Harris and the others circumvented donation limits by intentionally attributing contributions to people who never made them.
Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris and three of the leaders of his 2000 re-election campaign are the subjects of a state panel's request for a criminal investigation.
On a 4-0 vote, with one member abstaining, the commission sent the complaint to City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle to determine if criminal charges should be brought. Such an offense is a misdemeanor.
Harris, a Democrat who plans to run for governor this year, said he was "sickened" by the action against himself, former campaign chairman Lex Brodie, treasurer Roger Liu and deputy treasurer Peter Char. Harris repeated his belief that the probe has been a "politically motivated vendetta," and said he is confident Carlisle will determine that they did nothing wrong.
William McCorriston, an attorney for Harris, loudly implored the five commissioners not to turn the investigation into a criminal probe without considering specific evidence. He said a criminal investigation could damage Harris' campaign for governor.
"You know and I know, and let's not fool anybody, that this is going to have a direct impact on Jeremy Harris' ability to raise money, his ability to run his campaign, and his ability to get elected," McCorriston said.
In a separate but related action, the commission leveled its largest fine ever — $64,000 — against the Geolabs engineering firm of Kalihi for illegally giving $48,200 to Harris' campaign, $41,500 to Gov. Ben Cayetano's 1998 re-election campaign and more to other candidates.
William McCorriston
The commission in recent months issued seven other fines against Harris contributors for exceeding the $4,000 contribution limit. Watada declined to say whether he had specific evidence that Harris or his campaign officials deliberately hid the source of contributions in order to circumvent the contribution limit.
"... this is going to have a direct impact on Jeremy Harris' ability to raise money, ... and his ability to get elected."
Jeremy Harris' attorney
"I don't think we have to make that link," Watada said. "We feel we have some fairly solid information to show there was an intentional, deliberate violation by the Harris campaign, and the individuals named in the complaint have to be held accountable."
Char, the campaign deputy treasurer, said it was ridiculous for the commission to seek criminal prosecution because investigators had never even interviewed him, Harris or the others.
"To characterize this as a kangaroo court is an insult to all marsupials," Char said after the vote.
Carlisle said he did not know how long the criminal investigation would take.
"I would love to be able to say that this could be handled rapidly. Unfortunately, due to the nature of this type of allegation, it tends to be somewhat of a white-collar type matter that's paper-intensive and is usually a slow process," he said.
Carlisle said it was too early to decide whether federal authorities should get involved in the case.
"Certainly the federal people have the ability to pursue these type of offenses as well," he said. "And if it turns out to be appropriate, that's the type of thing that we would happily work hand-in-hand with the federal authorities."
Robert Watada
Campaign Spending Commission member Della Au said the illegal contributions by Geolabs and other firms made it clear that an agency with jurisdiction over criminal cases should get involved. Members Mona Chock, A. Duane Black and Clifford Muraoka agreed; member Richard Choy recused himself from the vote because Liu, the Harris campaign treasurer, has been his accountant for 30 years.
"We feel we have some fairly solid information to show there was an intentional, deliberate violation by the Harris campaign."
Campaign Spending Commission executive director
Watada pointed to the Geolabs case as an example of the Harris campaign falsifying records. He said the Harris campaign had attributed contributions to underage children of Geolabs employees. Watada said one reason he had not publicly presented evidence against the campaign was to protect the identity of the children and others who had done nothing wrong.
"The Harris campaign used children," Watada said. "These people are innocent and we didn't want to humiliate them by putting their names out there in a criminal complaint."
The commission found that Geolabs made illegal contributions to other campaigns as well: $16,000 to Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, $11,000 to Maui Mayor James "Kimo" Apana, $5,000 to former Honolulu mayoral candidate Arnold Morgado, and $3,000 to former Big Island state Senate candidate Fred Holschuh.
Geolabs — which the Harris administration has awarded nearly $500,000 in city contracts — agreed to the fine and admitted that the company had illegally reimbursed employees and their spouses for contributions made to Harris' campaign. A company can legally donate no more than $4,000 to a mayoral candidate.
The commission barred Geolabs and its officers and their spouses from making political contributions to any candidate for state or county office for four years. Geolabs president Clayton Mimura could not be reached for comment.
The commission also leveled a $5,500 fine against Gentry Homes for making excess contributions totaling $9,000 to the campaigns of Harris, Honolulu City Councilman John DeSoto, and former Councilman Mufi Hannemann. Gentry Homes president Robert Brant could not be reached for comment.
Advertiser staff writer Curtis Lum contributed to this report.
Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
