Rodrigues case near end
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
United Public Workers union leader Gary Rodrigues and his daughter, Robin Rodrigues Sabatini, devised a scheme to cheat union members out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and carried out that plan over five years, a federal prosecutor said yesterday.
In her closing argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni urged the jury to find Rodrigues and Sabatini guilty of all charges brought against them in a 102-count indictment, which contains allegations of mail fraud, money laundering and defrauding a union health-care plan. Rodrigues alone was charged with embezzling union assets and accepting kickbacks in connection with a union benefit plan.
"This is a case about the greed and power of Gary Rodrigues to funnel the union's money into his own pocket and to his daughter's companies," Nakakuni said.
But the lawyers who defended Rodrigues and Sabatini during the month-long trial, and who rested their case on Wednesday without calling any witnesses, implored jurors to look carefully at the government's case and to acquit the defendants on all charges.
"We're the ones trying to make you look at the evidence, and the government is running away from it," said Doron Weinberg, Rodrigues' lawyer.
The case is expected to be presented to the jury on Monday following a rebuttal from Nakakuni.
The prosecution claims that Rodrigues included the cost of retaining a consultant in contracts he negotiated with Hawaii Dental Service and the Pacific Group Medical Association and used the money that resulted to give contracts to his former girlfriend's stepfather, Al Loughrin, and then to Sabatini.
The consulting fees were included in contracts with health insurance providers without the knowledge of the union's board of directors or the rank and file, the prosecutors contend.
But the defense has argued that even with the cost of the consultant contracts built into the rates union members paid for medical and dental insurance, they paid the same or less for the health coverage negotiated by Rodrigues compared to similar health coverage provided by the state and got more for their money.
During her closing argument yesterday, Nakakuni said Sabatini had done "absolutely nothing" when she was paid more than $25,000 in consulting fees in January 1996 that had been set aside as part of the union's contract with Hawaii Dental Service to provide dental insurance for UPW members.
Sabatini's consulting company wasn't even founded until just before the consulting fee check, which covered the period of Jan. 1, 1994, to Dec. 31, 1995, was mailed to her, Nakakuni said.
She said Sabatini continued to receive consulting fees for doing virtually nothing until 1998, when Rodrigues learned that a federal investigation of him and his daughter was under way.
Nakakuni said that from that point on, Sabatini did "sham" work to try to justify the consulting payments she continued to receive. The work Sabatini was paid for was actually done by the union's own staff, Nakakuni said.
As late as 2001, Sabatini was asking questions of union staff members that indicated an unfamiliarity with union health and dental care insurance plans, even though she had been a paid consultant for five years by that time, Nakakuni said.
But Weinberg said three of the government's own witnesses testified at trial that the work Sabatini did was of great value to them. He said the consulting fees did not affect the rates union members paid for their health insurance.
"Members did not have to take the UPW plan. It was optional, but it was also a better value for the price," Weinberg said.
When he learned of the federal investigation, Rodrigues instructed union staff members to tell the truth when questioned, Weinberg said.
"The idea that he would contrive a scheme to take away anything from the union is preposterous," Weinberg said.
He said Herbert Nishida, an insurance salesman who testified near the start of the trial that he gave Rodrigues envelopes stuffed with cash until 1998 to show his appreciation for Rodrigues' help in getting him the union members' business, could not be believed.
That's because Nishida withdrew up to $56,000 in cash from his checking account during the years he claimed to be paying Rodrigues an average of about $20,000, but could not remember how he spent any of the remaining money each year, Weinberg said.
"He wasn't spending his cash on Gary, he was spending it on something he doesn't want the public to know about," Weinberg said.
Sabatini's lawyer, Richard Hoke, said the government failed to produce enough evidence to prove that she is guilty of any of the charges against her. Those who know most about how much work Sabatini did were not called as witnesses by the prosecution, Hoke said.
Because closing arguments ran longer than expected yesterday, Judge David Ezra, who is presiding over the case, will allow Nakakuni no more than 45 minutes, beginning at 9 a.m. Monday, for a rebuttal argument. Barring delays or other developments, the case should be presented to the jury before noon.
