Conflict of interest

County Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho’s uninformed, unsubstantiated allegations against The Garden Island in a rare “news release” this week from her office are quite telling.

She fails to grasp basic journalistic principles despite an honest effort to explain such to her during a meeting last week about a conflict-of-interest story entitled “Battle brewing.”

The Aug. 4 article shed light on her decision to proceed with a felony theft case against her long-time ex-boyfriend instead of conflicting out of it from the outset.

We are glad that Iseri-Carvalho at least had a deputy county prosecutor handling the case. But we’re grateful the state Attorney General’s Office eventually agreed to accept it.

Before making the decision to run the story, we gave the county prosecutor numerous chances to comment on the serious allegations the defendant made against her. Specifically, we asked what — if anything — in Koloa resident Dennis Louis Rego Jr.’s sworn court declarations was false.

Iseri-Carvalho declined to comment, saying she was legally bound by ethical obligations.

While we respect her decision either way, the newspaper has a duty to inform the public in a timely manner. The Garden Island will not allow public officials — whether it’s the prosecutor or someone else — to effectively kill a story by stonewalling a reporter’s questions. This would be a grave disservice to the community we serve.

Especially with more sensitive stories, we give an appropriate opportunity for key sources to comment. If we held every story until all sides agreed to comment, many important pieces would never see the light of day.

Due to Iseri-Carvalho’s decision to not comment, this piece focused on Rego’s allegations. But it also reported additional information from other sources, including the supervisory deputy attorney general, that allowed readers to judge for themselves whether Iseri-Carvalho’s office should be prosecuting the case.

But as we correctly guessed — based on having seen it happen multiple times in the past with other stories — soon after the article was published we were contacted by the “other side.”

Although the case is still pending, Iseri-Carvalho said since the AG has taken it she can discuss it.

The Garden Island gladly met with the prosecutor to hear her responses to Rego’s claims that were reported from the public documents he and his attorney filed in court. We published an article today airing more of her side, giving readers the balance — albeit in two separate stories — that we wanted to do from the beginning.

We hope our county prosecutor realizes such potential conflicts of interest in the future, transfers these cases accordingly, and stays focused on seeking justice instead of attacking journalists who are attempting to do their job of informing the community about allegations made under oath about an elected official.

We hope our county prosecutor realizes such potential conflictsof interest in the future, transfers these cases accordingly, andstays focused on seeking justice instead of attacking journalistswho are attempting to do their job of informing the community aboutallegations made under oath about an elected official.