LIHU‘E — Fifth Circuit Judge Randal Valenciano on Tuesday denied a motion to reconsider Le Beau Lagmay’s one-year prison term.
Valenciano said the 26-year-old Kapa‘a resident’s sentence for terroristic threatening and drunk-driving charges that was reached in a plea bargain was already “fairly lenient,” so the judge denied the motion.
Lagmay, a construction worker and mixed-martial-arts fighter, has served six or seven months of his one-year term at Kaua‘i Community Correctional Center in Wailua. Edmund Acoba, state deputy public defender, said Lagmay has been accepted into The Salvation Army’s substance-abuse-treatment program.
The motion to reconsider was filed to allow Lagmay his freedom to immediately enter the program, Acoba said.
John Murphy, county deputy prosecuting attorney, objected to the motion.
Lagmay in November 2009 allegedly threatened three Kaua‘i Police Department officers following a high-speed car chase and arrest in Lihu‘e. KPD officer Eric Caspillo used his Taser three times to subdue Lagmay.
Valenciano said he reviewed Lagmay’s case documents, including the change-of-plea form, wherein Lagmay changed his pleas from not guilty to guilty on lesser charges while prosecutors agreed to drop some of the original counts. The judge commended Lagmay for his effort to get substance-abuse treatment.
Lagmay was sentenced Aug. 19 and was given credit for time served.
He was originally charged with 18 crimes, including 11 counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, for allegedly threatening to kill or harm several KPD officers during his arrest last November in the parking lot of Wilcox Memorial Hospital.
At a preliminary hearing before 5th District Judge Trudy Senda, the number of charges was reduced to six: three counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, drunk driving, resisting an order to stop his vehicle and consuming or possessing intoxicating liquor while operating a motor vehicle.
On June 1, Lagmay pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of second-degree terroristic threatening and driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant.
Valenciano sentenced Lagmay to the maximum sentence for each count, which is one year in prison, and made the terms concurrent.
Dismissed were charges of resisting an order to stop his vehicle and consuming or possessing intoxicating liquor while operating a motor vehicle.
