LIHU‘E — The state Attorney General’s Office has agreed to accept the 2009 second-degree theft case against Koloa resident Dennis Louis Rego Jr., officials said. County Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho said as soon as her office received the case she
LIHU‘E — The state Attorney General’s Office has agreed to accept the 2009 second-degree theft case against Koloa resident Dennis Louis Rego Jr., officials said.
County Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho said as soon as her office received the case she contacted the AG’s office for advice on whether she should transfer the case due to a conflict of interest because Rego was her long-time boyfriend in the 1980s and early ‘90s.
State Supervising Deputy Attorney General Christopher Young of the AG’s Criminal Justice Division said he initially told Iseri-Carvalho that he didn’t see a conflict because the relationship took place 20 years ago. The Aug. 9 letter from the AG to the OPA saying it will accept the case does not explain the reason for the decision.
Iseri-Carvalho said she has prosecuted her own relatives during her years as a prosecutor and at no other time had there been a conflict-of-interest issue raised. She said if the OPA would have submitted to the conflict allegation and the AG refused to accept the case, Rego would not have been able to be prosecuted.
There were several court hearings and conferences regarding the case from Nov. 18 to June 16, when Rego’s defense attorney, Mark Zenger, introduced the conflict-of-interest issue in court three weeks before the trial, Iseri-Carvalho said.
Rego allegedly stole money that Kalaheo resident Chris Webster left at a checkout counter in the Koloa Big Save on Aug. 23, 2009. Store video surveillance footage shows a man who authorities identified as Rego taking something off the counter left behind by the customer in front of him.
A grand jury indicted Rego on Dec. 9. He pleaded not guilty to the second-degree theft charge, a class C felony.
Rego later rejected a plea offer from Deputy County Prosecutor Lauren McDowell in part because there remains a dispute over how much money was taken from the counter. Webster says there was over $3,000; Rego contends it was less than $100.
McDowell, who has prosecuted the case from its inception, made a generous plea offer, Iseri-Carvalho said, adding that Zenger made no counter offer. Iseri-Carvalho referred to McDowell’s handling of it as a “Chinese wall,” meaning Iseri-Carvalho had no involvement in the case.
Iseri-Carvalho said because the AG’s office has agreed to take the case, she can now discuss it publicly.
Hawai‘i attorney rules of professional responsibility, relating to trial publicity, state in part that “a lawyer who is participating or has participated in the investigation or litigation of a matter shall not make an extrajudicial statement that a reasonable person would expect to be disseminated by means of public communication if the lawyer knows or reasonably should know that it will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding in the matter.”
Responding to some of the claims Rego makes in his sworn June 23 court declaration, Iseri-Carvalho said Rego never paid for any of her schooling. Scholarships, family assistance and student loans funded her education, she said, adding that she had to “walk through snow to get to school” in Colorado.
Iseri-Carvalho also said she was not present when Rego tried to steal cosmetics — he contends at her request — from a store at Ala Moana Center on O‘ahu when she was a law student at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa.
“I was never even at the site. Period,” she said, adding that she has not spoken to Rego in 22 years.
Rego was arrested and eventually sentenced to a petty-misdemeanor, fourth-degree theft charge in 1987 in Honolulu. Iseri-Carvalho said she never knew he was ever convicted of anything.
Iseri-Carvalho and McDowell said the OPA has never sought enhanced sentencing in the case based on Rego’s prior criminal history, noting that this would be illegal under Hawai‘i law.
Zenger says in sworn court documents that he is concerned the OPA will use Rego’s 1987 conviction to seek an enhanced sentence should he be found guilty of the 2009 charge.
“That’s what they told me,” Zenger said Friday evening, referring to the prosecutors.
The difference between a felony and misdemeanor theft charge is four years in prison, one year for a misdemeanor charge and five years for a felony charge, so the felony charge “certainly increases his exposure,” Zenger said.
The fact that Rego hasn’t paid any restitution to Webster bothers Iseri-Carvalho, she said, although Rego hasn’t been found guilty of the 2009 crime.
Young, when reached by telephone Tuesday, would not comment when asked about the AG’s investigation into the 2009 theft case, saying only, “we have the case, we’re reviewing the case, and we’ll act appropriately.”
The next court date is a status conference set for Sept. 19.
• Paul C. Curtis, assistant editor and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com.
