Kenoi bought ‘exorbitant amounts of alcohol’

HILO — The deputy attorney general prosecuting Mayor Billy Kenoi for theft said in a court document the mayor used his county-issued credit cards to buy “exorbitant amounts of alcohol.”

Documents filed Aug. 30 by Deputy Attorney General Kevin Takata indicate the grand jurors who indicted Kenoi in March on eight criminal charges were presented eight witnesses and 38 exhibits, including receipts and bank statements detailing Kenoi’s use of his purchasing card, or pCard, for 15 alleged personal purchases.

“Itemized receipts were provided for 13 of the 15 transactions,” documents state. “In some instances, these receipts included detailed time stamps of when the outings commenced and ended. More significantly, the majority of the receipts detailed an exorbitant amount of alcohol being purchased. Evidence was also presented to show that these purchases were not reimbursed … until media requests were filed seeking copies of the defendant’s pCard records. This was established by way of media request dates and documentary evidence of reimbursement dates.”

Kenoi faces two counts of second-degree felony theft, two counts of misdemeanor theft, three counts of tampering with government records, and one count of making a false statement under oath. The second-degree theft charges are each punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Trial is set for Oct. 10 in Hilo, and a hearing on numerous pretrial motions is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday.

The charges stem from the mayor’s misuse of a county-issued credit card, known as a purchasing card or a pCard. Kenoi’s pCard charges became the focus of a yearlong criminal investigation by the attorney general after Big Island newspapers reported on March 29, 2015, that he used the county credit card at a Honolulu hostess bar.

In total, the mayor spent almost $130,000 on the card before it was revoked in March 2015. While most of it was for county business, there were numerous personal charges in addition to the $895 hostess bar tab, including $1,219.69 for a surfboard and $1,889 at Bike Works in Kona.

Other bar tabs included $400 at another Honolulu hostess bar and $700 at a Hilo karaoke bar.

The county issued its own pCard audit in July 2015 that found 145 pCard transactions totaling $23,683 in the Mayor’s Office didn’t follow county policy, had a questionable public purpose or might have violated state law. That included $3,689 in charges deemed personal.

Kenoi reimbursed the county for $22,292 in charges between January 2009 and March 2015. He later paid back approximately $9,500 more after the newspapers published their stories examining his pCard use.

According to Takata’s response to Aug. 8 motions filed by Kenoi’s attorneys seeking dismissal of charges, the mayor “alleges that his status as a public figure entitles him to special consideration that has never been extended to any other criminal defendant” and “chastises the state for lodging these criminal charges which he claims ignores his function as the ambassador to the county.”

“It seems the defendant contends that all his spending stemmed from a direct responsibility to his constituents,” Takata wrote. “… The state submits that the defendant’s status as Mayor of Hawaii Island does not excuse him from conforming to the criminal code.”

A July 8 letter by Takata to Kenoi attorney Todd Eddins explained the prosecution’s tampering allegations.

An Oct. 21, 2011, charge for $320 at the Hilo Yacht Club was a going-away luncheon for Kevin Dayton — then a Kenoi executive assistant, now a Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter — instead of an office strategic planning luncheon as listed, according to the correspondence.

The letter said “beer and whiskey purchased from Longs Drugs was not for ‘Sam Choy’s Poke Contest Volunteer Appreciation Event.’” The letter didn’t say what the liquor was for, but pCard records show Kenoi spent $125.95 at the Kailua-Kona Longs store on March 17, 2013, St. Patrick’s Day. The celebrity chef’s poke contest was the prior day.

Takata’s letter also said a $200 charge at Volcano House Restaurant on June 30, 2014, was not for a “luncheon with U.S. Conference of Mayors visitors,” but lunch with Alexander Cochran, his wife and children. According to the letter, Cochran told an investigator for the AG he never worked for the U.S. Conference of Mayors and said he never told Kenoi that he did.

An Alexander Cochran is in charge of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Washington, D.C., office. According to the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union, he once did independent lobbying for the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Cochran didn’t return a phone call by press time and it’s unclear if he is the same Alexander Cochran referred to in the filing.

Takata’s filing also denies involvement in media leaks which “without any proof, (Kenoi) attributes to the Department of the Attorney General.” In an Aug. 8 motion, Kenoi’s attorneys claim the leaks were designed “to unfairly prejudice Kenoi in the eyes of grand jurors, as well as the (Hawaii Island) community members who could potentially serve as trial jurors.”

A document said the mayor’s request for a dismissal of the indictment due to prejudicial pretrial publicity has no legal precedent, and added Kenoi himself “chose to reveal the specific nature of the personal transactions” and now blames the attorney general for “leaking information that he himself publicly revealed many times over as a basis warranting permanent dismissal of charges against him.”

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.