Guard implicated in ice smuggling free on bond
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
A Halawa prison corrections officer who was arrested Friday for allegedly making arrangements to smuggle crystal methamphetamine into the facility was released from federal custody yesterday after signing a $25,000 signature bond along with his father.
Melvin H. Moisa is scheduled to be arraigned on May 5. Federal Magistrate Judge Leslie Kobayashi ordered Moisa to stay away from the Halawa Correctional Facility and not to have any contact with prisoners or staff members there while awaiting trial.
Moisa, 25, is one of three people arrested so far as the result of a federal and state investigation into how illicit drugs find their way into state prison facilities. Also arrested Friday on federal drug charges was Honolulu lawyer Thomas Stephen Leong, while former Halawa prison guard Richard Brooks was arrested Friday on state drug charges.
Moisa's lawyer, William Domingo, a deputy federal public defender, yesterday said that contrary to previous reports by other media, Moisa's arrest was not linked to Leong's.
Acting Public Safety Director James Propotnick said recent testing of certain inmates at various state prison facilities showed that 20 percent of them had been using drugs.
While that does not mean that one fifth of all prison inmates are using illegal drugs, it is an indication that too many drugs were available inside the prison, Propotnick said. "No percentage of drugs in our institutions is acceptable to me," Propotnick said.
Smuggling drugs into prison has been a constant problem, one caused by "those who are stupid enough to ruin their lives and end their careers for, what, a few bucks or even a few thousand bucks," Propotnick said.
The wardens of the Halawa Correctional Facility and the Oahu Community Correction Facility swapped places with each other after three men escaped from HŒlawa April 14. Propotnick would not say whether concern about the level of illicit drug use within state prisons was a contributing factor.
"They were reassigned for a number of reasons. That's all I can say. I have to leave it at that," Propotnick said.
