Alleged sighting could push up Lindsey jail date
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
If it's true, it has to be the worst coincidence of Lokelani Lindsey's life, one that could land the former Bishop Estate trustee in jail sooner than she planned.
After convincing a federal judge three times to delay the start of her jail time because her disabled husband needed constant care, a vacationing IRS investigator said he saw Lindsey last month at a California airport and at a Las Vegas hotel.
Although Lindsey was supposed to begin serving a six-month sentence Nov. 3, U.S. District Judge David Ezra will hear arguments tomorrow from the U.S. Attorney's Office, which seeks to move up Lindsey's jail date. In court papers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Les Osborne Jr. said the delays "appear to have been obtained by false representations."
Lindsey was sentenced in October 2002 on money-laundering charges in connection with her sister's 1995 bankruptcy case.
Almost immediately after the sentencing, Ezra granted Lindsey a delay based on statements that her husband's medical condition required round-the-clock care, Osborne said. The delay was extended two more times, the last in August.
But last month, while on the Mainland to attend the University of Hawai'i football game against the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, IRS Supervisory Special Agent Jerry Yamachika said he saw Lindsey on two occasions, both without her husband, Osborne said today.
Yamachika said he saw Lindsey on Sept. 18 as she walked unaccompanied in the terminal area of Oakland International Airport and again the next day, also unaccompanied, at the California Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, according to court papers.
Lindsey's husband, Stephen, lives in Hawai'i, Osborne said.
"So it would appear, based on those observations, she is not providing the 24-hour care that was the basis for her extensions and if not, she should go to jail," Osborne said.
"It was totally by coincidence. He saw her at the airport in Oakland and at the California Hotel in Las Vegas."
Lindsey's defense attorney, William Harrison, was not immediately available for comment today.
Lindsey was a trustee for the multibillion-dollar charitable trust that's now called the Kamehameha Schools. She and three other former Bishop Estate trustees who made as much as $1 million a year were ousted in 1999 after state and federal investigators found evidence of what they claimed was mismanagement and abuse of power. A fifth trustee resigned.
Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.
