Current:Home > ScamsJudge in a bribery case against Honolulu’s former top prosecutor is suddenly recusing himself-InfoLens
Judge in a bribery case against Honolulu’s former top prosecutor is suddenly recusing himself
View Date:2024-12-23 15:44:29
HONOLULU (AP) — A month before the start of a bribery trial against Honolulu’s former top prosecutor, the judge who has been presiding over the case since 2022 is unexpectedly recusing himself.
U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright issued an order Wednesday morning rescuing himself in the case against former Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Keith Kaneshiro.
Jury selection was scheduled to begin next month in one of Hawaii’s most anticipated criminal trials.
Seabright has presided over the case since a U.S. grand jury indicted Kaneshiro and four others in 2022, alleging that employees of an engineering and architectural firm bribed the prosecutor with campaign donations in exchange for Kaneshiro’s prosecution of a former company employee.
Seabright’s order doesn’t explain his recusal.
All five face have pleaded not guilty to count of conspiracy to defraud the City and County of Honolulu and one count of conspiracy to intimidate the former employee to prevent her from exercising her rights by filing a civil rights lawsuit against the firm. The first count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, the second count 10 years.
The indictment alleges that Mitsunaga & Associates employees, along with an attorney listed as an unindicted co-conspirator, contributed more than $45,000 to Kaneshiro’s re-election campaigns between October 2012 and October 2016.
They allegedly got family members, business partners, employees and contractors to donate as well to get around individual campaign contribution limits.
The former employee targeted with prosecution had been a project architect at Mitsunaga & Associates for 15 years when she was fired without explanation on the same day she expressed disagreement with claims the CEO made against her, court documents said.
Kaneshiro’s office prosecuted the architect, whom court documents identify only as L.J.M., but a judge dismissed the case in 2017 for lack of probable cause.
Kaneshiro took a leave of absence as Honolulu’s prosecuting attorney in March 2019 after he became a target of the federal investigation. He didn’t run for re-election in 2020, and his term expired in January 2021.
Retired Federal Defender Alexander Silvert said a judge stepping away from a case like this is highly unusual, especially given how long Seabright has been on it.
“This is a high publicity case for Hawaii, given that it was city and county’s lead prosecutor,” Silvert said.
The unexpected move could mean there was a conflict of interest that Seabright recently learned about or there is a personal issue, Seabright said.
There was no immediate response to an email from The Associated Press sent to the court clerk and Seabright’s courtroom manager asking if the judge could comment on his recusal.
veryGood! (6738)
Related
- 'Yellowstone' premiere: Record ratings, Rip's ride and Billy Klapper's tribute
- Fire from Lebanon kills 2 Israeli civilians as the Israel-Hamas war rages for 100th day
- How Wealthy Corporations Use Investment Agreements to Extract Millions From Developing Countries
- Mia Goth sued by 'MaXXXine' background actor for battery, accused of kicking his head: Reports
- John Robinson, successful football coach at USC and with the LA Rams, has died at 89
- Tennis balls are causing arm injuries, top players say. Now, a review is underway
- King Frederik X and Queen Mary of Denmark Share Kiss on Balcony After Queen Margrethe II's Abdication
- Millions of Americans face below-zero temperatures as weekend storms bring more Arctic air and snow
- Noem’s Cabinet appointment will make a plain-spoken rancher South Dakota’s new governor
- Chiefs vs. Dolphins highlights: How Kansas City shut down Miami to win frigid wild-card game
Ranking
- We Can Tell You How to Get to Sesame Street—and Even More Secrets About the Beloved Show
- Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes has helmet shattered during playoff game vs. Miami
- Spoilers! Why 'American Fiction' ends with an 'important' scene of Black representation
- Nick Saban will be in Kalen DeBoer's ear at Alabama. And that's OK | Opinion
- Florida State can't afford to fire Mike Norvell -- and can't afford to keep him
- Oklahoma City-area hit by 4.1-magnitude earthquake Saturday, one of several in Oklahoma
- In Iowa, GOP presidential candidates concerned about impact of freezing temperatures on caucus turnout
- French Foreign Minister visits Kyiv and pledges solidarity as Russia launches attacks
Recommendation
-
Inflation ticked up in October, CPI report shows. What happens next with interest rates?
-
Mexico is investigating the reported disappearance of 9 Colombian women
-
What we know so far about Kalen DeBoer's deal with Alabama
-
Taiwan president-elect Lai Ching-te has steered the island toward democracy and away from China
-
Is Kyle Richards Finally Ready to File for Divorce From Mauricio Umansky? She Says...
-
Iowa’s winter blast could make an unrepresentative way of picking presidential nominees even more so
-
Animal rights group PETA launches campaign pushing U.K. King's Guard to drop iconic bearskin hats
-
2023 was officially the hottest year ever. These charts show just how warm it was — and why it's so dangerous.