Prosecuting
Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, whose office was recently recused for conflict in two high profile cases, is now leveling conflict allegations
of her own — against the County Council and County Attorney's office.
In
an April 12 email sent to county officials, Shay claimed the County Council and County Attorney are conspiring against
her to help Deputy County Attorney Justin Kollar win the upcoming
prosecutor's race. She also accused the County Attorney's office of “corruption” and “vindictive actions,” as well as “unprofessionalism, deceit and manipulation.”
I've
published the entire email below, but in it she accuses the Council
and County Attorney of “behind the scenes political maneuvering”
before going on to say:
It
appears that the County Attorney’s Office is using the Council in
its quest to pursue a personal attack on the OPA’s successful
POHAKU program to obtain political advantage of another DCA, Justin
Kollar, who the County Attorney is publicly supporting to run against
me in the upcoming Prosecuting Attorney election.
Shay
also vowed to seek “the assistance of the FBI, the Attorney
General’s Office and the US Attorney’s Office to conduct a
comprehensive investigation regarding corruption involving the County
Attorney’s Office.” In the meantime, she wants the County
Attorney's office to “conflict out," and special counsel hired to
represent her office.
She
was apparently prompted to fire off the email after seeing the
Council Committee of the Whole's agenda for next Wednesday, which
includes an executive session on the POHAKU program and her request to apply for technical support from
the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Vera institute of Justice's
national Cost-Benefit Knowledge Bank for Criminal Justice, along with “related matters.”
The "related matters" and Shay's on-the-offensive email raise the question: WTF is up with POHAKU — the “restorative
justice” criminal diversion program that Shay started last year?
In
the meantime, here's her email in its entirety:
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From: Shaylene Carvalho
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Date: April 12, 2012 7:18:53 PM HST
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To: Jay Furfaro , Bernard Carvalho , Gary Heu
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Cc: Mel Rapozo , Kipukai Kualii , Dickie Chang , Nadine Nakamura ,
JoAnn Yukimura , Tim Bynum , Jennifer Winn , Alfred Castillo Jr. ,
Jake Delaplane
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Subject: REQUEST FOR SPECIAL COUNCIL
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Aloha Council Chair Furfaro,
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It is with great surprise that I see an agenda item for the POHAKU
Program related to the VERA grant. I was informed by you yesterday
that the VERA grant item was going to be received. I then left the
Council meeting, thinking that was the case, as we intended to
withdraw our application for the VERA grant because we wanted to have
discussions with Deputy County Attorney (DCA) Jennifer Winn. The
reason for this discussion was that I received a draft of an opinion
from DCA Winn, on Tuesday night, regarding the POHAKU program. I was
confused as no one had contacted me regarding any potential problems
with the POHAKU program or its relationship to the Vera grant. I
posed numerous questions to DCA Winn and have yet to receive any
response.
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The Charter provides that the County Attorney’s Office shall be the
chief legal advisor and legal representative of all agencies.
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It is shocking to me that a DCA can write an opinion without
attempting to communicate with the client she represents to obtain
full information. At no time prior to Tuesday night was I contacted
to provide me of notice of the reason for the opinion. This exhibits
yet another pattern of unprofessionalism, deceit and manipulation. It
appears that the County Attorney’s Office is using the Council in
its quest to pursue a personal attack on the OPA’s successful
POHAKU program to obtain political advantage of another DCA, Justin
Kollar, who the County Attorney is publicly supporting to run against
me in the upcoming Prosecuting Attorney election. This bias was
evident as the County Attorney and the Council Chair agreed that DCA
Kollar would be prohibited from representing the OPA in any capacity.
Unfortunately, the mere prevention of DCA Kollar from interaction
with our office, did not end the political motives of the CA’s
office. If OPA was receiving the zealous representation by the CA’s
Office that is required under the Charter, wouldn’t the appropriate
action be to first contact the OPA instead of going to the Council
Chair? Why wouldn’t the County Attorney, as the OPA’s attorney,
call to inform the OPA of potential concerns it may have in its
operation of the POHAKU program before going to the Council Chair?
Doesn’t the Council Chair have an obligation to be fair and
objective in posting of agendas with notice to the agency it is
discussing information about? If this wasn’t personal, wouldn’t
the County Attorney obtain ALL the facts before releasing a premature
opinion based on limited facts? To my knowledge, the County
Attorney’s Office assists the Mayor, all other departments, and
commissions in readily bringing legal issues to their respective
bodies, never to the Council. This is the first time that I have
heard of this kind of behind-the-scenes political maneuvering with
the Council and the County Attorney.
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Many other instances of the County Attorney’s vindictive actions
have been revealed to the Council Chair and other members of the
Council. These have included, baseless complaints to the Office of
Disciplinary Counsel that have been unsubstantiated, meritless
complaints to the Board of Examiners to prevent an attorney at OPA
from graduating with his class and obtaining his bar license in a
timely manner, purposely violating the Civil Service Commission
rulings to hamper the operations of the OPA, informing the council of
erroneous laws to vote against OPA’s funding bill, lying to a
council member that an investigation was pending against that council
member to secure a negative vote on bills for OPA, intentionally
attempting to bar from participation council members only when their
views are supportive of OPA, and continually attempting to trample
OPA’s rights to testify at public hearings.
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The above instances make it clear that the CA’s office has
consistently and systematically been working against the interests of
its client, the OPA. This is a flagrant violation of not only its
ethical and legal obligations to OPA, but also the Charter. Given
these pervasive issues, I will be seeking the assistance of the FBI,
the Attorney General’s Office and the US Attorney’s Office to
conduct a comprehensive investigation regarding corruption involving
the County Attorney’s Office. Until their investigation is
complete, the OPA is requesting that the CA’s Office conflict out
of any and all matters relating to the OPA so it can be fairly
represented, and the public can be assured that no retaliatory
actions are instigated.
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If you need further information or clarification, please do not
hesitate to contact me.
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Mahalo,
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Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho
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Kauai Prosecuting Attorney
Posts
54 comments:
Let's see the draft of that opinion regarding potential problems with the POHAKU program! Yea what's up with dat?
I'll trust Shaylene over the crooked county attorney anyday. Great reporting Joan!
Seems like they have been trying to set her up. and making her look nuts, but now it seems, they put the ant nest there on purpose to make her react and appear to be losing it.
Make her look nuts......she is nuts!
The FBI, US Attorney and the Attorney General all because she isn't getting along with the County Attorney and the County Council. Talk about overreacting.
The OPA enemies list is getting longer and longer. In the world according to Shay 30 prominent Attroneys and community leaders are all wrong and out to get her while she is perfect, can do no wrong and is above reproach.
What to do when you hate everyone and they are all against you too? Yes the whole County needs to be recused from everything Shay, unless of course it's to give her everything she wants including her enemies in jail. Poor ting. Makes me wanna kiss Castillo and the whole conspiring Council.
Losing two recusal motions before judges speaks clearly about how our prosecutor does not get the meaning of "conflict of interest." Conflicts are the worst violation of the code of ethics for a lawyer, and she has already been called on it not once but TWICE!
She needs to stop compartmentalizing and hating on the CA office, while out of the other side of her mouth she begs for their help. CA went and helped her in tim bynum's criminal case with a quash motion, and Deputy County Attorney Jennifer Winn even received compliments from the judge about the quality of her work (as reported by TGI). Last I checked it was the prosecutor that should be in charge of quash motions instead of the county attorney's office -- who helped in this case without even a public complaint.
And this POHAKU concern?!? Watch the tapes and you'll see that its the COUNCIL asking for legal opinions on this, not the CA trying to ferret out an avenue to kill a program. The video doesn't lie!
Shay, stop trying to act like your doo doo not hauna when you even go and ask the office that youre hating on to also cover your ass in a case where you bring bogus charges and get called out by a judge on for your office's unethical behavior!
Leona Helmsley comes to mind.
I wonder if the problem with POHAKU is that the booth at the county fair looked like Shay's campaign booth! Aren't the Pohaku colors orange and black too? Are our taxpayer dollars being spent on Pohaku?
If there's a problem with the program and it's such a good one then fix the problem. Why pick a fight with everyone?
Pohaku has had choke problems from the beginning in how it is implemented. Has she talked to the newbies she just throws in District w/out training? Does she ever? If the public knew how BAD District Court was doing, they'd be apalled!
Council to County Atty (Mel abstaining): Pls Give us an opinion on Pokaku.
CA: ok here it is. Some issues they gotta fix
Pros: Screw you. This is a conspiracy. I'm calling the FBI
How odd. Shay's calling on the very agencies that may very well already be investigating her, to help her out. She's losing it. Paranoid schizophrenia.
An office as important as the OPA cannot have a leader as unstable as Shay at its helm. The community, taxpayers... we deserve better.
If she were an effective administrator, she'd settle down and do the job at hand instead of wasting everyone's time with all of her nonsense. As a taxpayer, my money's going to pay her salary. What a waste of money! Shay, you owe it to the community to do your job and let everyone do theirs. Settle down, girl.
Shays salery $114,848.00 per year. Higer than Mayor.
It is odd that she would rather have the Feds get involved instead of fixing the problem. Of all the things to investigate this has got to be low on the FBI's list.
Everybody's out to get me! Not fair!
I hope she she exposes this corrupt and incompetent CA and Council.
Maybe this is what it will take.
Yes, it is serious enough for the FBI and itʻs about time.
All of you here on the witch hunt, foaming at the mouth for blood better hope and pray your community lynching does not end up getting Kollar elected.
You will have gotten exactly what you deserve.
She's not being accused except for the comments on this blog. Wait for the facts before you say anything because it may be about nothing at all.
I bet the OPA employees would welcome the FBI investigating Shay. I am sure they would have a lot to say to the FBI. After watching how she acts at Council I can imagine how she acts and what she does behind closed doors. She acts like a bully. Will the Council be bullied by her?
If the county attorney is paid to represent the prosecutor and he's not doing his job she should charge him for stealing. Call KPD instead.
She's complaining because she was given a written opinion before she knew they were going to write one. Next time, they should just tell her first. That must be wrong if it's the straw that broke the camel's back. Look at all the stuff they did to her before she accused them. I would have been complaining way before this. Can the judge kick them off her case because of a conflict like Bynum or the humane society?
If POHAkU is illegal, then notifying Council right away seems appropriate. Think she gave Bynum a chance to unplug that rice cooker before she charged him? What's good for the goose...
This is raising my level of uncomfortability.
This is a Power struggle for control.
Pick one side or the other side. No one wins.
More cancer in government.
time to "cut it out".
The Best and the Brightest do not reside in our County government.
No Aloha in City Hall.
Dr Shibai
Sound like a power struggle to me. Shay has a successful program and they try to shut it down.
Shay is losing her mind!!!
POHAKU simplified requires the Defendant do the full rehabilitation program, do community service in the area where the crime took place, and pay back any damage he caused or stole, and if he fails to perform he must admit his guilt and be sentenced.
It is a very good program and so far it is working inredibly well. Defendants are fully informed and only enter upon full consultation and recommendation with an attorney. There is only one reason anyone would want to shut it down and that's because they don't want to see something Shay invented succeed. That's it. End of story.
Oh and by the way, she sounds really pissed, and based on what I know and read, she has every right to be.
The county attorney's office is not acting in the unbiased manner it is supposed to, representing her the way it should.
Understand the county attorney's office has fiduciary duties to the prosecutor's office as the prosecutor's council. It is violating the rules of professional conduct in its actions if what Shay said is true. I'll say this. I wouldn't want Shay pissed at me, that's for sure.
Shay did not invent Restorative Justice. It's been in operation for years on the mainland. She's just attaching a different name to it and trying to make like she was the first one to implement this.
Shaylene vs. County Attorney is sorta the pot calling the kettle black.
KamaKele- That's just it. What Shay is saying is NOT true. However, it will all come out in time. Believe it.
Why wait for the facts? Let's assume the worst about the Prosecutor and the County Attorney. All Joan did was post an email and that has little by way of details regarding the underlying issues. If all those commenting have information about wrongdoing, go report it to the FBI or whatever. If you have already, good for you. And if some elected official that you support turns out to be a crook, stop blindly supporting them by posting stupid comments about how great they are and how they're being persecuted.
well...not every act of wrongdoing is punishible by the FBI. Every week someone here or at garden isle starts ranting about the FBI investigating bla bla bla. Guess what, the Feds are here to make sure we don't kill any more endangered birds. As for our local politics...they don't care. Yea they'll check in on KPD but think again if u thought they'd take a look at our politicians.
Also, I know alot of what Shay said in that email is true. I know the man that Al Castillo attacked in an attempt to keep him from becoming a prosecuting attorney. The board of ethics put Castillo's complaint through the normal procedures before finding it meritless, but that normal procedure took over three months, which is how long he had to wait before he could be an attorney.
Shay sent that poor kid to Council and had him render a legal opinion. The Board of Examiners, not the Board of Ethics, allowed him to be licensed. Shay shouldn't have sent him in the first place and the reason it took so long was because the issue was not clear cut. I heard she is now paying this newly licensed attorney $80000 to make up for her screw up.
lol, that's real funny, where'd you hear that?
Ask the young man how much he makes. If it's 80 gs, you'll know the truth.
"Oh and by the way, she sounds really pissed"
Is that pissed in the British sense?
If so, yes she does. And often.
I think Al Castillo warned the young man before he testified and went ahead anyway. I don't remember what was said but I remember thinking that he should just let him talk and not interrupt him. He does that a lot and maybe he has a good reason but its kind of rude.
Shay wants to make a federal case of the following: "baseless complaints to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel that have been unsubstantiated, meritless complaints to the Board of Examiners to prevent an attorney at OPA from graduating with his class and obtaining his bar license in a timely manner, purposely violating the Civil Service Commission rulings to hamper the operations of the OPA, informing the council of erroneous laws to vote against OPA’s funding bill, lying to a council member that an investigation was pending against that council member to secure a negative vote on bills for OPA, intentionally attempting to bar from participation council members only when their views are supportive of OPA, and continually attempting to trample OPA’s rights to testify at public hearings."
Really?
Rod Blagojevich getting busted trying to sell a senate seat, now that was a case worthy of federal resources. Al Castillo jerking Shaylene around, not so much.
8, count em 8 acusations. All the County Attroneys, most of the Council, the Mayor, and those "dishonest" Attorneys she fired or who quit, not to mention the one who testified about her bias in Court. Oh yea! the Judge too! All out to get her!
That is so unfair. No wonder she feels mistreated. Hey, all of you, you know who you are. Stop picking on her. Now. Or else.
All you people in Shay's office, when someone asks you to do something stupid, remember that if it ends up in court it's better to play Luke's part instead of Jake's.
Hi, I heard from a friend there was speculation about my salary based on comments made here. It's public record I believe, but to clear things up, I make 70k, which is the current entry-level salary of all incoming deputies. 75% of my current paycheck is paid for by a federal grant. I do not get paid more than any other current deputy in our office. Your source may have used to work here before I did. When he/she left the office, the base salary was 55k. He/She may contribute my salary to some kind of compensation for my ordeal. That is not the case. If you are further interested in my finances, I have 80k in student loan debt from paying for law school.
I would appreciate it if people would not spread misinformation as if it is fact. These are sensitive topics.
"Until their investigation is complete, the OPA is requesting that the CA’s Office conflict out of any and all matters relating to the OPA so it can be fairly represented, and the public can be assured that no retaliatory actions are instigated." Then what? Who's going to be her attorney and what's it going to cost?
She's an attorney and she has an office full of attorneys...she'll be fine.
WE WILL ALL PAY FOR SHAY!
Lawyers who represent themselves have a boss with an interesting perspective. "But some things are not forgivable. Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable! It is the one unforgivable thing, in my opinion, and the one thing of which I have never, never been guilty."
"I know I fib a good deal. After all, a woman's charm is 50% illusion."
"I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic. I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things. I don't tell truths. I tell what ought to be truth."
Aggressive tactics, threats and intimidation work for Shay again. Weak Council Chair and clueless Dicky cave joining Shaylene apologists KipuKai and Mel to keep Council from getting the briefing from the County Attorney they asked for in the first place. At least until after her budget hearing on Friday. There is more hear than meets the eye. Shay is desperately trying to hide something! Wonder if we will ever know what it is.
There is precedent to what Jake did in court. From State v. Rulona 71 Haw. 127, 131-132:
Attorney "Disciplinary Rule (DR) 7–106(C)(3) provides:
(C) In appearing in his professional capacity before a tribunal, a lawyer shall not:
(3) Assert his personal knowledge of the facts in issue, except when testifying as a witness.
"The form of questions used by the prosecutrix, in examining the witness as to the conversation which had taken place between them, made those questions an assertion of the prosecutrix' personal knowledge of the facts in issue with respect to that conversation. New trial ordered.
I'm just now reading a bunch of these blogs. Very interesting info presented. Good for you Gary Nelson that you identified yourself and clarified the issue about your salary. Just a notation about your choice of words, and I only point this out because as an attorney one would expect you to be highly educated and thus able to form simple sentences using the proper vocabulary. Your salary is not CONTRIBUTED, but rather it is ATTRIBUTED to what you refer to as your "ordeal." I hope you're properly using correct grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure when you're composing work product. Incorrect use of language could really mess up your lawyer stuff.
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