2 plead no contest in campaign case
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer
A former chairman of the University of Hawai'i Board of Regents and the head of one of the state's largest engineering firms pleaded no contest yesterday to misdemeanor charges of steering illegal campaign contributions to Mayor Jeremy Harris.
Donald Kim and Russell Figueiroa were fined $4,000 each by District Court Judge Bert Ayabe but were granted a deferred acceptance of the pleas, which will clear their criminal records if they aren't charged with new offenses for one year.
Kim served as a UH regent from 1997 to 2001, including two years as chairman, and was also chairman of R.M. Towill Corp. Figueiroa is the company's president.
Each was charged with making a campaign contribution under a false name and with exceeding the legal donation limit. They faced a maximum penalty of one year in jail for each charge, but prosecutors asked that they be fined and sentenced to probation.
City Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee said Towill illegally funneled "a substantial amount of cash" to Harris' campaign committee, but declined to specify how much. Harris has not been charged with wrongdoing.
To obtain the no-contest pleas, prosecutors agreed to drop misdemeanor charges against seven others who allegedly played a role in the illegal donations, including Big Island deputy county clerk Jay Mende and two family members.
A defense attorney for Kim and Figueiroa said there was no evidence to support a grand jury indictment of the two. They agreed to be charged directly by prosecutors and plead no contest to end the investigation and spare the other defendants from legal problems, attorney Renee Yuen said.
"The plea agreement was reached after what I consider to be lengthy negative media scrutiny and indictment by innuendo," she said.
The state Campaign Spending Commission is conducting a separate probe of Towill and its associates, scrutinizing donations to Harris and other politicians.
Prosecutors launched a criminal investigation of political donations from several companies more than two years ago, after the commission raised concerns about Harris' fund raising.
Several defendants linked to other firms have pleaded guilty, or no contest, to misdemeanors or felonies related to campaign donations and were fined; the commission has fined dozens of others.
But no criminal cases have gone to trial, and no defendants have gone to jail.
Harris' attorney has repeatedly denied that the mayor played any role in steering contracts to campaign contributors, and has blasted the criminal probe as a witch hunt meant to sabotage Harris' political career.
