Lawyer guilty in prison drug sting

Advertiser Staff

Honolulu attorney Stephen Leong is facing prison time after a federal court jury found him guilty yesterday of participating in plans to smuggle crystal methamphetamine into the state's sprawling Halawa prison complex.

Leong, 42, is believed to be the first lawyer in Hawai'i convicted of trying to smuggle drugs into state prison facilities. Leong was taken into custody immediately after the verdict was announced.

After a week-long trial on conspiracy, drug possession and attempted drug distribution charges, a jury deliberated for about a day before finding Leong guilty.

During the trial, the wife of a Halawa prison inmate testified that she gave ice to Leong on at least three occasions in January 2003, and that on one occasion, Leong put the drugs into an envelope stamped with the words "confidential legal documents."

After prison authorities intercepted the envelope, a "sting" operation was set up and Leong was arrested after buying two ounces of ice from an undercover Honolulu Police Department vice officer on April 18, 2003, in a parking lot fronting the Aloha Tower Marketplace, according to court testimony.

Leong's lawyer, Barry Edwards, argued during the trial that Leong was the victim of "entrapment" — that the federal government induced Leong to commit a crime that he otherwise would not have.

"That was one defense we put to the jury and the jury disagreed," Edwards said outside the courtroom after the verdict.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William Shipley, who prosecuted the case, said the fact that a lawyer's name turned up during the investigation by federal authorities and state prison officials into drug smuggling at Halawa prison "added a unique and troubling angle" to the probe.

"Mr. Leong's involvement came as a surprise," Shipley said.

Two adult corrections officers at Halawa were also indicted. One was sentenced last year to seven years in prison; the other is to be sentenced later this year.

Shipley said the two guards and Leong were indicted by a federal grand jury as part of the same investigation although there was no direct connection between the guards and Leong.

Under federal law, one of the charges Leong was found guilty of yesterday calls for a mandatory minimum prison term of 10 years and a maximum term of up to life in prison, Shipley said. He said Congress added a "safety valve" to the 10-year mandatory minimum to take into account first-time offenders who have no prior criminal history. It appears that Leong may qualify for the safety-valve sentence reduction, Shipley said.

Leong is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 25 by U.S. District Judge Alan Kay. The amount of time Leong must serve will be determined under federal sentencing guidelines that take into account criminal history and other factors.

For more than a decade, Hawai'i prisons have wrestled with the use of ice and other illicit drugs by inmates, many of whom were sent to jail because of problems arising from drug abuse.

Shipley described drug smuggling into Hawaii prisons as "an ongoing problem, one that is continually evaluated."

"It is a problem that has ebbs and flows," he said.