Judge accepts plea in police food scam
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
The highest-ranking Honolulu Police Department official ever prosecuted for felony theft will have his criminal case dropped if he stays out of trouble for five years and abides by conditions similar to probation.
Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto yesterday granted a request by former Assistant Police Chief Rafael Fajardo to defer accepting his no-contest plea to second-degree theft.
Sakamoto rejected a request by city prosecutors to find Fajardo guilty and sentence him to at least 30 days in jail for using taxpayer money earmarked to buy food for cellblock detainees to feed themselves and a small group of police officers from 1995 to 2000.
The judge said Fajardo had helped build the department's high standards and integrity, but his lack of oversight with regard to the food purchases had led to an erosion of those contributions. In granting the deferral, Sakamoto said he felt obligated to balance Fajardo's shortcomings with his numerous achievements.
Sakamoto also ordered Fajardo to pay restitution of about $4,500 and perform 100 hours of community service within a year beginning June 1. He faced a maximum sentence of five years in jail and fined $10,000.
Fajardo and high-ranking officer Jeffrey Owens, also formerly in charge of the Central Receiving Division, were indicted by the O'ahu grand jury in 2001 on theft charges. Some of the meals purchased for police included finer cuts of meat such as leg of lamb and turkey. Food-service workers John Spondike and Ernest Villanueva also were charged with theft in the case.
Sakamoto granted Spondike's April 22 request to defer accepting his no-contest plea. Villanueva and Owens have yet to return to court.
After the hearing, City Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee estimated that the so-called cellblock "food scam" had cost taxpayers about $22,000. Because Sakamoto granted Fajardo's request for a deferral does not necessarily mean Owens' request for a similar deferral will be granted when he appears before the judge June 24, Lee said.
In his first extended public statement about the charge, Fajardo said yesterday he should not have allowed the diversion of food. "I did not know my subordinates were ordering the food," Fajardo said.
But as commander of the Central Receiving Division, where people who are arrested are held while awaiting court appearances, he said he was taking "full responsibility for the action of my subordinates."
He declined to comment further as he left the courtroom.
Fajardo, 61, retired from the police force at the end of 2001. He pleaded no contest to the theft charge the day before his trial was to begin in Circuit Court.
Lee asked Sakamoto to sentence Fajardo to five years probation, at least 30 days in jail, restitution and a $2,000 fine.
Lee said Fajardo never had taken responsibility for the misuse of public money and continued to blame subordinates. He said Fajardo blamed higher-ranking officers for not scrutinizing bills submitted for food that should not have been ordered because it required cooking. Food-service workers were only to reheat frozen, prepackaged meals, Lee said.
He said Fajardo ordered others who worked with him in Central Receiving to order items that needed cooking and to justify the purchases as "food for prisoners."
But Fajardo's lawyer, Howard Luke, said his client had nothing to do with the food theft. Fajardo was taking responsibility for the thefts because they happened while he was in charge, he said. When he learned of accusations that food was being stolen, Fajardo immediately ordered locks installed on cellblock refrigerators.
Luke also asked Sakamoto not to lose sight of the Fajardo's contributions in more than 36 years as a Honolulu police officer, including helping troubled youths and eliminating civil-rights violation complaints in the cellblock.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
