Jamie Kalani English, a former Democrat Senate Majority Leader for Hawaii, was sentenced to a stint of 40 months in prison for the taking of bribes in order to influence lawmaking while in office.
English, who previously was the representative for east Maui and the islands of Lanai and Molokai, chose to plead guilty to honest wire services fraud back in February. Additionally, he admitted to taking bribes from one local business owner to the tune of $18,000 for ‘shaping legislation’ that would help the company with the publicly financed conversion of various cesspools.
“[English] peddled the power and influence of his position as a Hawaii State Senator and Majority Leader to enrich himself and betray the trust bestowed upon him by those he was elected to serve,” claimed U.S. prosecutors via a memo to the judge of the case, issuing a recommendation for a sentence of three and half years in prison.
Ty Cullen, another former state REp for Hawaii, also plead guilty to the same charge in a similar style case and is slated to be sentenced for the case in October.
The legal representation for English, Richard Sing, made the argument that his client should be sentenced to just two and half years in prison, making the claim that he had been entirely cooperative with the prosecution team once he was arrested and been fully honest about his entire dealings with the business owner in question, which has been labeled by the court as “Person A.”
Sing also stated that English “was a compassionate and dedicated advocate for the rural communities and individuals he represented.” Sing failed to issue any comments about the final sentencing.
To go along with the sentence of 40 months in prison, U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway chose to slam English with a $100,000 fine and issued the order that English also be given three years of supervision after his eventual release.
“I hope this serves as a message to everyone in government that there can be no tolerance for unethical conduct,” stated Scott Saiki, the House Speaker, via a released in the wake of English being sentenced.
As stated by his attorney, English is suffering from long COVID, showing symptoms such as sleep apnea, memory loss, respiratory problems, and lethargy. English also made use of long COVID as a reason when he chose to step down just last year, without highlighting his previous arrest during the corruption investigation. English will start his assigned sentence on the 16th of August.