The state attorney general has filed criminal charges against the principal and elementary school vice principal of Myron B. Thompson Academy state charter school.
A criminal complaint the attorney general filed in state court Friday charges Principal Diana Oshiro and her sister Vice Principal Kurumi Kaapana-Aki with tampering with a government record. The complaint also charges Kaapana-Aki with second-degree theft.
Those are the same charges on which Oshiro and Kaapana-Aki were booked when they turned themselves in to state sheriff deputies last week. Following the arrest, the women were released without charges.
Tampering with a government record is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Second-degree theft involves the loss of property or services worth between $300 and $20,000 and is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
According to the complaint, the theft occurred between May 22, 2007, and March 28, 2013, while the tampering happened Oct. 26, 2012.
The charges appear to stem from Kaapana-Aki working full time as a Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant while she was also working full time for the online charter school.
In November 2013 the attorney general asked a state judge to force the state Ethics Commission to turn over records of its investigation into the school. The AG’s chief investigator told the judge he was conducting a felony theft investigation.
The following month, the Ethics Commission announced it had lodged 162 ethics violation charges against Oshiro and Kaapana-Aki. The charges accuse Kaapana-Aki of 144 days of unauthorized absences between 2007 and 2012, for which she was paid, while she was working at her Hawaiian Airlines job, and also accuse Oshiro of facilitating the unauthorized absences.
The Ethics Commission later put the case on hold pending the outcome of the state’s criminal investigation against the sisters.
Kaapana-Aki, a former public school teacher, maintained her membership in the Hawaii State Teachers Association and was receiving a teacher-scale salary. The school paid her an additional $35,000 per year under a series of temporary contract employee agreements.
Also in December 2013, the attorney general executed a search warrant at the school’s downtown
Honolulu offices, seizing all school meeting, contract, financial, payroll and tax records. The search warrant authorized the seizure of records relating to all employees, their friends, associates and relatives at the school, and specifically named
Oshiro and Kaapana-Aki.
To secure the search warrant, the attorney general told another state judge that Oshiro, Kaapana-Aki and the school’s secretary likely accessed the state Department of Education’s computer system to change employee attendance records to match false changes they made to the school’s paper records.
A DOE official said it is typically the school secretary who has the password to make attendance entries into the department’s computer system. The secretary has not been charged with any crimes and no longer works as the school’s administrative services assistant.
In addition to felony theft, the attorney general said its investigation was looking into charges of computer fraud, money laundering, racketeering and falsifying business records.
The attorney general did not respond to a request for comment about the criminal complaint.
The lawyers for Oshiro and Kaapana-Aki declined to comment.
The governing board of the Myron B. Thompson Academy was “dismayed to learn of the charges that have been leveled against Principal Diana Oshiro and Elementary Administrator Kurumi Aki,” said Myron K. Thompson, board chairman and son of the Bishop Estate trustee for whom the school is named. “Ms. Oshiro and Ms. Aki have been outstanding leaders for our educational institution.”
State Charter School Commission Chairwoman Catherine Payne said, “The commission has reached out to the governing board of Myron B. Thompson Academy in an effort to discuss the school’s next steps in addressing the allegations levied against the school’s administrators. The commission remains concerned about the situation but is hopeful that the governing board will exercise sound judgment in its oversight of this top performing school. The commission will be consulting with the state attorney general concerning next steps.”
