A former FBI clerk who used her clearance to gather information and tip off drug dealers — sparking a massive federal probe into drug dealing, cockfighting and police corruption — was sentenced yesterday to four months in prison.

Charmaine Moniz, 36, pleaded guilty in November 2006 to pulling information from an office computer to warn her husband to stay away from drug dealers. She and her lawyer, David Gierlach, have maintained that she acted out of concern for her husband and did not intend to aid a drug distribution ring.

Because the information helped facilitate drug dealing by her husband, Eric, and another man, Damien Kalei Hina, Moniz committed a federal felony by tapping into the FBI database without authorization.

In addition to the four months in prison, Moniz was sentenced to two months of home confinement and three years probation and was assessed a $100 fee by U.S. District Judge David Ezra.

"The fact of the matter is she supplied her drug-involved husband with information. What she did was serious, what she did was wrong and it could have turned quite dangerous; fortunately, none of that happened," Ezra said. "The court must send not only the right message to her but to the community that this type of behavior is unacceptable."

Gierlach had asked Ezra for probation. Moniz had faced up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni said in court yesterday morning that she believed Moniz's actions may have started out of concern for her husband but that did not excuse her violation of the FBI's trust.

"She crossed the line when she passed on information to her husband," Nakakuni said. "I'm sure she did try to get him (her husband) to stay away but he did not and her information helped facilitate drug dealing."

"By exceeding her authorized access on a classified computer system, Moniz hampered ongoing FBI investigations and undermined the ability of special agents to perform their jobs effectively," said Robert J. Kauffman, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Honolulu division in a written statement released through a spokesman.

More than 20 family members and friends, including her three children, attended yesterday's sentencing. Family members began to cry and sob softly as Ezra handed down the sentence.

"We're disappointed the judge gave the kind of time that he gave," Gierlach said outside of court. "I understand the judge's concern, but this was just a case of a wife telling her husband to stay away from bad guys."

FBI suspicions about Moniz led to a two-year federal investigation that resulted in federal charges against more than 35 people, including Moniz's husband, Eric, five Honolulu police officers, the head of Aloha Stadium security and a Honolulu Liquor Commission inspector.

The FBI investigation, the most wide-ranging here in years, included taps on at least 10 phones.

According to federal affidavits filed in the case, the investigation started in March 2004 when Charmaine Moniz was suspected of providing the confidential information to her husband and other suspected dealers.

'STASH HOUSE'

A confidential source told authorities that the Moniz home in Waialua was used by Hina as a "stash house" for Hina's drugs, the documents said. Hina's phone was tapped in June 2004, and evidence gathered in that case led to other wiretaps as the investigation widened, according to the affidavits.

The probe resulted in a series of indictments earlier this year involving alleged drug activities, a Waialua cockfight and gambling operation, firearm charges and extortion.

Three police officers were charged with trying to protect the operation, another was charged with hiding cockfight gaffs and a fifth charged with possession of an unregistered machine gun.

Prior to Moniz, the most recent sentencing in the case was Aug. 10 when former liquor commission inspector James Rodenhurst was sentenced to 17 months in federal prison for extorting owners of two bars and getting at least $2,000.

Rodenhurst, 57, who spent 10 years as a Honolulu police officer and four years with the commission, pleaded guilty in February to the conspiracy extortion charge.

Rodenhurst was one of seven law enforcement officers charged last year with federal felonies as a result of the FBI wiretap investigation into a cockfight gambling operation in Waialua, drug transactions and other illegal activities.

Rodenhurst, a night-shift supervisor with the liquor commission, admitted that from 2004 to January 2005, he and Herbert Naone, 57, a former police officer and former chief of Aloha Stadium security, received money from the operators of the Volcanoes and Sin City nightclubs in exchange for notifying them when liquor commission inspectors would be going to the establishments.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.