No-contest plea deferred in activist's theft case

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

Hawai'i civil rights activist Marsha Joyner will be able to avoid a permanent criminal record if she abides by conditions similar to probation for the next five years.

Circuit Judge Richard Perkins on Thursday granted Joyner's request to defer accepting her no-contest plea to a charge that she stole almost $15,000 when she was president of the Kon Tiki condominium association.

A tearful and contrite Joyner admitted that what she did was wrong and said she gave in to temptation at a time when she was jobless and ill while taking care of her dying mother.

Joyner pleaded no contest in September to second-degree theft. At that time, city Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee said that between March 1998 and October 2000, Joyner owned a business, Malenka O Hawaii, that received "several thousands of dollars" from The Association of Apartment Owners of the Kon Tiki 'Ano Hou for work that could not be justified.

The next board of directors questioned those payments, he said.