Attorney gets 10 days in jail
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
A well-known Honolulu attorney is the first person to receive a jail term in the city prosecutor's investigation of illegal campaign contributions to Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Circuit Judge Steven Alm yesterday sentenced Edward Y.C. Chun, 71, to 10 days in jail for advising his clients to make a $5,000 donation to Harris' 2000 mayoral re-election campaign.
Edward Y.C. Chun was sentenced to 10 days in jail in a widening probe of improper campaign donations.
Chun acknowledged that he advised the Food Pantry grocery chain to donate $5,000 to Harris under the name of two employees, who were later reimbursed.
The maximum allowable campaign contribution the grocery store could have made at the time was $4,000.
Alm scheduled a Dec. 29 hearing on when Chun should begin serving his jail time. If Chun files an appeal in the misdemeanor case, his sentence would automatically be stayed under state law pending the outcome of his appeal.
Chun told Alm quietly, but without hesitation, that he accepted responsibility for his role in "causing the contributions to be made," and then apologized to his family, his friends, the community and other members of the Hawai'i bar.
Alm told Chun that he rejected his earlier request to enter a no-contest plea because he did not believe it was in the interest of the public or the administration of justice to do so.
"Campaign finance abuse is a serious matter, and the court felt a no-contest plea was inappropriate," said Alm, a former U.S. attorney
Alm read from statements made to police investigators that suggested Chun was instructing the two Food Pantry employees on how to contribute money to Harris in a way that would not be tracked back to the corporation or its president.
Alm told Chun that as a member of the Hawai'i bar for more than 40 years, he is held in high regard by his peers and that he had received and read 16 letters submitted in support of Chun. But he told Chun that campaign finance abuse shakes public confidence in the elections process.
"Anything that harms or victimizes that system should not and cannot be tolerated," Alm said.
Chun's lawyer, Dale Lee, said he would file an appeal within days saying that Alm erred by not taking himself off the case and by handing out a jail sentence when other judges have not sent anyone to jail for violating state campaign contribution laws.
Chun, a senior partner in the Honolulu law firm of Chun Kerr Dodd Beaman and Wong, pleaded guilty in September in exchange for prosecutors dropping a second charge.
He said he had not intentionally advised his clients to break the law, but that his failure to carefully check whether the donations were legal could be construed as "reckless conduct" and grounds for conviction.
Lee had sought to remove Alm from the case after the judge said in chambers that he favored a jail term. But Alm ruled that Lee had presented no proof that Alm had reached a premature conclusion about Chun's guilt during pretrial discussions.
The maximum penalty for the misdemeanor charge is one year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Nine others implicated in the campaign contribution investigation were fined by other judges after pleading no-contest to similar violations, but until yesterday none had been sentenced to jail.
Misdemeanor charges are pending against 12 more defendants, including a top Hawai'i County elections official, and others cases are under investigation. Harris has not been charged with wrongdoing.
Lee urged Alm not to sentence Chun to jail because he is an attorney who made what amounts to a single incident of bad judgment in his more than 40 years as a lawyer.
Lee called Chun's involvement in steering money to Harris' campaign "an aberration in an otherwise stellar personal and professional life."
In addition to the 10-day jail sentence, Alm also sentenced Chun to one year of probation and a $200 fine.
City Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee said after the hearing that he had asked that Chun be fined $1,000 but had not sought any jail time.
"The court obviously recognized the seriousness of the crime involved," Lee said. He said he asked for jail time in other campaign contribution cases only to have the request denied.
Investigations continue into improper campaign contributions to Harris and other prominent elected officials, among them former Gov. Ben Cayetano, former Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, former Mayor Frank Fasi, former Maui Mayor James "Kimo" Apana and former City Councilman Arnold Morgado.
Reach David Waite at 525-8030 or dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com.
