Botched Illegal Gambling Case Prompts Lawsuit Against Prosecutors
Eight people who were the subject of one of the largest illegal gambling stings in Hawaii history are suing Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Keith Kaneshiro and one of his top deputies, Katherine Kealoha, saying they committed retaliatory and malicious prosecution after one of the plaintiffs compared Kaneshiro to the mobster John Gotti on TV news in 2013.
Also named as defendants in the case are Vernon Branco, who was a lead investigator for the prosecuting attorney’s office in the gambling case, and the City and County of Honolulu.
Tracy Yoshimura is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court of Hawaii on Friday. He is the owner of PJY Enterprises, a company that used to distribute Product Direct Sweepstakes machines to arcades around Oahu.
Yoshimura had been named along with some of his co-plaintiffs in a 414-count criminal indictment in 2014 that was tied to the use of the sweepstakes machines as alleged gambling devices.
Read more: http://www.civilbeat.org/2018/01/botched-illegal-gambling-case-prompts-lawsuit-against-prosecutors/