HONOLULU — A former Honolulu police sergeant has been fined in a deal that allowed him to plead guilty to reckless driving instead of driving under the influence, a report said.
Albert F. Lee, 52, was fined $500, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Tuesday.
A circuit court judge ordered the fine and 60 hours of community service.
Police in November 2016 responded to an early-morning report of an accident in which a vehicle crashed into an electrical vault on Oahu.
Lee was sitting in the passenger seat and told officers someone else had been driving, but that he did not know driver’s identity because he was asleep. The off-duty sergeant was not arrested or subjected to sobriety or blood alcohol tests, records said.
Honolulu prosecutors later charged Lee with operating a vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant and making a false report to law enforcement authorities.
Lee pleaded no contest earlier this month to reckless driving instead of the DUI charge. Prosecutors dropped the misdemeanor false reporting charge as part of the plea deal.
Lee previously sought to have the DUI and false reporting charges dismissed, claiming he was being prosecuted in retaliation for arresting a convicted felon against the wishes of former Honolulu Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha.
A jury last month found Kealoha and her now-retired police chief husband guilty in a plot to frame a relative to silence him from revealing fraud that financed their lavish lifestyle.
Kealoha was also behind a complaint against Lee resulting in a written reprimand for not claiming overtime on the day of the arrest, Lee said.
The Honolulu Police Department fired Lee in May 2018.
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Information from: Honolulu Star-Advertiser, http://www.staradvertiser.com
