LIHU‘E — In just four years away from the county Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, the head of the office has seen the face and pace of crime on the island change.
Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, elected unopposed in November to a four-year term as county prosecuting attorney, said she sees many more female felony defendants than she did when she was a deputy prosecutor in the office.
She also has seen crime in general on the rise, she said in an exclusive telephone interview last week.
“Life on Kaua‘i is changing. Crime is pretty prevalent,” she said, pointing to one case where a husband is accused of sexual assault on his own children, and the wife is accused of theft and fraud for allegedly stealing money from her employer.
“We need to look at diversion programs,” or alternatives to having all criminal cases proceed to court where, even during her short reign as prosecutor, “a lot of cases get dismissed because we can’t get them in court within six months.
“We can’t continue this level of criminality.”
In addition to 160 new felony cases in the last six months, she said she inherited a backlog of around 4,000 unserved legal documents — arrest warrants, summonses, and subpoenas — when she took office late last year.
Former County Council colleague Mel Rapozo, a former police officer, has been serving warrants for Iseri-Carvalho’s office, she said. Rapozo and Iseri-Carvalho appeared before the Board of Ethics earlier this year before Rapozo was given clearance to renew his contract with the county.
Still, Iseri-Carvalho conveys a sense of frustration that “juries are hesitant to convict” adults accused of crimes including sex assault and other violent crimes when they see them still together as part of family units.
“It impacts the community. Crime is overflowing into community issues,” she said, specifically pointing to an ongoing shortage of affordable housing.
Where people are forced to live with three generations of family members because they can’t afford places of their own, or when unrelated people try to squeeze into one-bedroom places in order to share rent, giving up precious privacy, domestic violence and other social issues are going to increase, she said.
“Crime is going to escalate.”
• Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com
