BY MALIA ZIMMERMAN AND JIM DOOLEY – A warrant for the arrest of Kauai Mayor Bernard P. Carvalho Jr. on charges that he stole more than $5,000 of county gasoline in 2009 and 2010 has been submitted to two state judges on the Garden Isle who reportedly refused to sign the warrant until there is more evidence, Hawaii Reporter has learned.
A grand jury indictment returned this week against Kauai county official Janine Rapozo alleges that she “promoted or facilitated” Carvalho’s fuel thefts.
The Carvalho arrest warrant was prepared by the Kauai Police Department on the strength of 1,000 pages of evidence including a county audit and an independent investigation conducted by a well-respected local law firm and a former police officer.
According to the Kauai Prosecutor’s office, McCorriston Miller Mukai MacKinnon LLP, a Honolulu-based law firm, conducted the independent investigation into the gas audit.
Independent investigator Kenny Chang, who is President and CEO of Kiamalu Consulting and Investigations Agency, and a 20-year veteran of the Honolulu Police Department, also was involved in the independent investigation.
The investigation of Carvalho began this summer and has been complicated by dramatic infighting between Carvalho, his administration, the prosecutor and the Kauai Police Department.
County prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho lost her bid for re-election this month to Justin Koller, the county attorney in Carvalho’s administration.
In addition, an October 30 court decision by Kauai Chief Judge Randal Valenciano gave the mayor the power to suspend the police chief indefinitely. That has added to the confusion over who on the island could investigate or prosecute the mayor without fear of retaliation, and raised questions about the independence of a new prosecutor with close personal ties to the mayor.
Although it was the worst-kept secret on Kauai, the investigation into the mayor officially became public this week after a Kauai Grand Jury indicted Rapozo, the County’s Human Resources Manager and former county Transportation Director, on November 14 on 1 count of theft and 22 counts of falsifying government documents related to Carvalho’s alleged misuse of county fuel.
The indictment alleges that Rapozo aided “in the planning and/or the commission of the offense of theft in the second degree by Bernard P. Carvalho Jr.” from Feb. 1, 1009 through Dec. 31, 1010.
Ironically, the mayor has a fuel allowance, but in 2008 when running for office and in 2009 when elected to office, Carvalho pledged publicly on at least three occasions not to use it.
What the mayor did instead, according to county sources, is take possession of a gas card assigned to a county Transportation agency vehicle. He then used it to fill his personal vehicle, a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, with fuel. The Transportation Department then paid off Carvalho’s gas bill without ever assigning his name to the receipts, according to investigative reports.
The county auditor, who was examining $1.4 million of annual county gasoline purchases, discovered the misuse of the card when, as one source put it, “a whole lot of gas was unaccounted for.”
County staff reportedly confirmed the mayor was using the card, and disclosed to auditors that they were told not to note the mayor’s name on any county documents.
Even getting the investigation into the auditor’s report was a challenge. But when the independent investigation was finally authorized 6 months after it was first requested, investigators met with an unfriendly administration.
When investigators attempted to interview the mayor about the gas card, sources said, Carvalho refused to speak to them, citing his right under the 5th Amendment not to incriminate himself. Rapozo, however, did speak to investigators.
Rapozo, who issued the county gas card to Carvalho, is married to Carvalho’s campaign manager, Lenny Rapozo, who is now County Parks Director.
The mayor did not respond to a request for comment from Hawaii Reporter, but his office referred calls to well- known Oahu defense attorney Eric Seitz. Seitz was not available for comment this afternoon.
Kauai County Managing Director Gary Heu issued a statement yesterday that omitted mention of Carvalho but defended Rapozo, saying the county administration supports her “100 percent.”
Heu maintained the county has seen “no evidence of wrongdoing” and Rapozo has performed 18 years of exemplary service on behalf of the County and the people of Kauai.
The dispute has played like a soap opera set within the closely-knit island community.
Consequences for pursuing a case against the mayor could be severe, sources said.
The prosecutor already lost her re-election bid to the mayor’s candidate.
Police Chief Darryl Perry, who holds the unsigned arrest warrant for Carvalho, could potentially be disciplined or even suspended indefinitely by the mayor if he pursues the case.
Perry does not seem to have strong backing from his police commission. The 7-member commission this week decided by a vote of 4-2 (and one member absent) not to pursue an appeal of Valenciano’s October 30 ruling that said the mayor has authority over the police chief.
Perry sought a ruling from the court after the mayor, last February, suspended Perry for several days while the county investigated complaints from a police department employee about alleged mistreatment by police higher-ups.
Police chiefs in all four counties reportedly are backing Perry’s appeal, arguing that there should be a firewall between mayors and police chiefs. Otherwise, as one law enforcement officer said, “it is as if the mayor is the police chief.”
The decision by the police commission not to appeal was unexpected since an attorney had offered to take the case pro-bono, making the potentially high cost of an appeal a non-issue.
Aloha Malia and Jim,
You need to correct many errors in your report.
1) Mayor Carvalho did not appoint Deputy County Attorney Justin Kollar. He was appointed by the County Attorney.
2) The Mayor's auto allowance, which he has refused to take, has nothing to do with the use of county fuel.
3) The car allowance has been in place for Kauai Mayors since the Mayor Malapit era of the early 1980's. The purpose of the auto allowance is to cover wear and tear, maintenance, depreciation, etc. The Mayor uses a county issued fuel card for his personal vehicle as he uses this vehicle for county work related purposes.
4) The fuel card utilized by the mayor was issued to him by the County Transportation Agency, an agency of the Office of the Mayor.
5) The vote at the Police Commission was not 3 -3. It was 4 – 2.
6) The Police Chief would absolutely love to serve his arrest warrants on the mayor, but no Judge on Kauai would sign the warrant.
7) The automated fuel system records clearly details the $ amount, date, location and gallons of fuel used by the fuel card issued to the mayor.
Thanks for the correction on the vote, and background on the fuel system records, which is in the audit. I believe we made the point in the first part of the story about the arrest warrants going unsigned.
"The Mayor uses a county issued fuel card for his personal vehicle as he uses this vehicle for county work related purposes. "
How do you that? Are you in the car with him each time that he drives it?
The above comment was placed by mistake and I wish to withdraw it.
Sounds like a disgruntled ex-employee is venting.
Oh Johny
If you are correct, the ousted Kauai Prosecutor and Kauai Police Chief is in deep kim chee. Dooley and Zimmerman better check into their sources. I can tell you that I use my own van for work and get my gas paid for by my company. My van has a V8, so there is no way I would eat that cost.
Johny, you be good.
The crime that matters is that the state, county and owners of vehicles don't facilitate and use renewable energy for clean transit. Oh no, the state and county are fake and most vehicle owners are illegal settlers in occupied Hawai'i. Crime is so "natural" here.
you are absolutely correct Michael. Mayor and Rapozo knew exactly what they were doing. I know for a fact that Rapozo falsified documents. Too bad the auditor did not go back a few more years before Baptiste passed. Within, there would be much more fodder to work with. That Rapozo was actually placed in a county position outside of the Kauaʻi Bus, after the fact, proves to me that Kauaʻi Countyʻs Administration is highly suspect for corrupt and fraudulent movement ALWAYS at the cost of islanders of the Hawaiian National kind.
Lets see…the whistle blower will go to jail and the mayor will get off scott free…that is the american way especially in hawaii!!!
The American way–whistleblower Bradley Manning goes to prison without a trial and President Bush, VP Cheney and others go free.
That's great investigative work, considering the obstacles I'm sure the investigators encountered. Kauai is like one of those small towns where the Mayor is Boss Hog, the police commission and judges are all in his pocket and no one's going to tell him he's doing anything wrong. And the town folk is just fine with the way their little community is run just as long as there's no major changes to their town. "God forbid a Super Ferry come into our town!" Thats the beginning of the end.
Everyone on Kauai should read KPD Blue which is solely based on public facts. Nothing bias, just plain facts. It's sad but at least someone had the balls to expose a long line of crooks!
these cases are pretty difficult to solve, because we can't know for sure if the employee actually had knowledge of everything the mayor did or which circumstances forced her to cover him up
This is EXACTLY WHY Hawaii must adopt the Common Law Grand Jury, the 4th Branch of Government, We The People. there is entirely to much corruption in the Hawaii political and judicial systems. their corruption is the "white elephant" in the living room…Aloha, Paul
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