Vegas trip may be Lindsey's bad luck
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Her defense attorney says she just needed a mental health break, but a chance encounter on the Mainland could send convicted felon Lokelani Lindsey to jail sooner than she planned.
U.S. District Judge David Ezra, who allowed Lindsey to delay the start of her six-month sentence three times since last October, could rule as early as today that Lindsey made false claims about the need to delay the sentence so she could care for her disabled husband around the clock.
LINDSEY
The former Bishop Estate trustee has been on unsupervised release since being convicted on money-laundering charges in connection with her sister's 1995 bankruptcy case. She is supposed to begin serving her sentence Nov. 3.
At the sentencing, Lindsey tearfully told the court that all she wanted to do was "stay home and take care of my husband." But in court papers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Les Osborne Jr. said the delays "appear to have been obtained by false representations."
A vacationing investigator with the Internal Revenue Service said he saw Lindsey last month at a California airport and at a Las Vegas hotel, without her husband, Osborne said.
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 yesterday.
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, does not dispute the sightings.
Lindsey was on the Mainland to visit an attorney in the case and to visit her husband's 85-year-old sister, "who is very, very ill," Harrison said.
"Her husband couldn't make the trip," he added. "She gave him very good care. She left three individuals with him on a 24-hour basis."
But Lindsey also needed a break from caregiving, Harrison said.
"She has been told a number of times by her doctor to take a break and that she needed some time for herself," Harrison said. "She is also preparing Stephen for the fact that she will be away for a while. This tests the waters."
He said the U.S. Attorney's office is making "a lot out of nothing."
Although the hearing is scheduled for today, Harrison hopes to have it rescheduled for sometime Monday, he said.
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.
