LIHU‘E — Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho and Deputy County Attorney Justin Kollar squared off Tuesday night at the Kaua‘i War Memorial Convention Hall for a debate in front of an audience of about 200. The two candidates for county prosecuting
LIHU‘E — Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho and Deputy County Attorney Justin Kollar squared off Tuesday night at the Kaua‘i War Memorial Convention Hall for a debate in front of an audience of about 200.
The two candidates for county prosecuting attorney addressed questions about victim crimes; drug and alcohol crimes; public safety and community access; property crimes and offenses; and general administrative and management.
Iseri-Carvalho campaigned on a platform of experience, conviction rate and knowledge, while Kollar promised accountability and efficiency.
Kollar called into question “a complete drain of institutional knowledge” in the Office of Prosecuting Attorney (OPA), citing that 17 attorneys have left in the last four years. He also questioned Iseri-Carvalho’s assertion that the OPAe has a 96 percent conviction rate for violent crime and sexual assault cases.
“Statistics are really important when you are doing things like grant applications and papers, but they don’t really do anything in and of itself to keep the community safer,” Kollar said. “It’s very easy to make numbers line up the way you want them to line up. When you take into account three-quarters of the cases on this island are settled via plea bargains, that could involve reduced charges, dismissed charges, cases that are plea bargained down, but still counted as convictions in the end run. … It’s not being open, transparent and honest to the community about the results they expect from their prosecutor’s office.”
Iseri-Carvalho countered that her office has been transparent, citing her statistics are published and brought to the county council.
Iseri-Carvalho questioned if Kollar would bring trust and quality into his administration, stating that he dismissed a sex assault case with a confession, dismissed a Class A felony drug trafficking case and that he dismissed with prejudice a case involving a sting operation concerning violations against liquor laws.
She also said that her more than 20 years of experience makes it easy for law officials to call upon her and her staff.
“We’ve gained the respect and confidence of our law enforcement community to make sure the cases are prosecuted fairly, objectively and to its fullest extent,” Iseri-Carvalho said. “We need attorneys that follow the law, and this is what we currently have.”
Kollar said he was proud of the work he did while he served in the prosecuting office, saying it garnered him promotions and raises from Iseri-Carvalho.
Conflict of interest
Iseri-Carvalho said the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney (OPA) takes conflicts of interest seriously, and that her office follows the law. She pointed out that even though there may be a conflict of interest with an attorney in the office, it doesn’t mean that another attorney in the office couldn’t handle the case.
“That decision is usually made by the person who is handling the matter,” Iseri-Carvalho said. “If there is a conflict of interest with our entire office, it is referred to the attorney general’s office.”
Kollar took the opportunity to question cases that he believed were of conflicted interest under Iseri-Carvalho’s administration.
“If you are looking to understand how not to handle potential conflict situations, I think the past four years of the prosecutor’s administration has been an excellent example of that,” Kollar said. “We have never seen another term of office so riddled with situations of conflict. There’s been so many forced recusals from the prosecutor’s office from handling cases.”
As examples, he mentioned the cases involving Dennis Louis Rego, Kaua‘i County Councilman Tim Bynum and Lara Butler-Brady.
Iseri-Carvalho addressed the Butler-Brady case, stating Kollar made a false statement that the OPA was forced to recuse itself from the case.
Sexually-based offenses
Kollar underscored the sensitivity in handling sexually-based crimes.
He said that what the OPA can do better is to ensure there is a strong, fully staffed and fully operational victim witness program providing services to the victims with the support needed, plus cultivate leadership within the office to prosecute these crimes.
Iseri-Carvalho said that sexual assault prosecutions is her “forte.”
Iseri-Carvalho said that prior to her serving as prosecuting attorney, “the conviction on sex assault cases were horrendous. There was less than 20 percent.”
Iseri-Carvalho said with the YWCA, she was able to establish a medical protocol for the county, which expedited the speed of examination by emergency room doctors, plus creating classes to train hospital examiners on how to treat victims with respect and obtain information for the prosecution.
She said her office has created a collaborative, multidisciplinary team to assist victims immediately.
“I’ve been working with the (YWCA) and the detectives in ensuring we have the highest conviction rate ever, which is 97 percent on all sex assault convictions.”
County charter
Kollar said violations of the county charter can be crimes, and that provisions under the county’s Code of Ethics that breach public trust and resources should be taken very seriously.
“What I don’t think that suits the community or serves the community is to seize upon on any little example of somebody not being totally 100 percent compliant of some tiny provision in the county charter and jumping on that, taking that that to council, and turning council into essentially a sideshow pointing fingers and making all kinds of accusations,” Kollar said. “(It) should not be used, in effect, as a political tool against somebody. ”
Iseri-Carvalho said that a discrepancy in the county budget, which resulted in a $1 million shortage, would be taken seriously by her office. She said the office will investigate fully.
“It’s difficult for me to see how two weeks into the budget, now we are $1 million short,” Iseri-Carvalho said. “That million dollars belongs to the public. … And we will do a full and fair investigation and reveal who took that money, and hopefully those cases will be prosecuted.”
Retaining prosecutors
Kollar said if he is elected, his administration will hire, train and retain qualified employees and turn them into career prosecutors.
“We’ve seen an unprecedented number of settlements, of claims by employees against the prosecuting office,” Kollar said. “We’ve seen federal … investigators make findings pertaining to racial harassment in the office. These claims costs the county hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Iseri-Carvalho said that her employees are carefully chosen because they hold the power to restrict someone’s freedom.
“We need to gain the respect of KPD, and that’s what we’ve done,” she said.
Medical marijuana
The candidates also touched upon the issue of medical marijuana.
Iseri-Carvalho said she “strongly supports” medical marijuana usage if people with debilitating diseases and terminal illnesses want to use it as a tool or as therapy. She did acknowledge a 2010 study by the Hawai‘i State Narcotics Division of Department of Public Safety, which found 97 percent of users of medical marijuana did not suffer from debilitating disease.
Kollar said he is uncomfortable putting the state and a patient in between his or her physician. He said he thinks it’s odd that people throughout Hawai‘i can go to a physician and obtain prescription pills and resell them on the street, but for people who want to obtain a medical marijuana permit to grow cannabis at home, there’s a lot of “hoops to jump through.”
“This is something our legislative needs to take a hard look at: How we are prioritizing our public safety assets and what would be a more productive use of those assets?” Kollar said.
Access to beaches and fishing areas
Kollar said he has gone on record to protect the right of people to access beaches for cultural reasons and fishing. He said he wants to see access preserved for all people of Hawai‘i, and will work with agencies and land owners to provide access.
Iseri-Carvalho pointed out her family’s roots on Kaua‘i, describing childhood memories of catching fish and tako along Kaua‘i’s shores.
She said access to these beaches can be used as a learning tool to teach others about the medicinal and cultural importance of the ocean.
“These are the kinds of values we need to hold onto,” she said. “These are the types of things we need to teach our kids that are important.”
Kollar took that chance to point out that some of Iseri-Carvalho’s supporters include large land owners, such as Grove Farm Co. and A&B Properties Inc.
Other topics discussed included cyberbullying, illegal vacation rentals, the definition of perjury, hate crimes, drunken drivers and Drug Court.
• Andrea Frainier, interim managing editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) or afrainier@thegardenisland.com.
