The former athletic director Opens in a new tab accused of stealing more than $360,000 from the Mililani High School athletic booster club is in plea agreement negotiations with
prosecutors.
According to a memorandum of pretrial conference filed Tuesday in Circuit Court, Glenn S. Nitta’s chances of changing his plea to guilty as part of an arrangement with prosecutors is “highly probable.”
Nitta, 75, pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for a pretrial hearing on Monday.
He allegedly used the
nonprofit’s money to pay $364,709 for personal expenses, including gambling in Las Vegas; business, car and student loans; and credit cards. The school has not recovered any of the money that it raised through concession sales at games and other fundraisers.
Nitta’s trial is scheduled for May 15 before Judge Catherine H. Remigio, and
issues likely to be raised as a defense are “reasonable doubt” and “ignorance/mistake of fact/law,” according to the state court filing.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Brandon K. Golden has indicated that the state plans to call six to 12 witnesses at trial. Nitta’s attorney, Scott K. Collins, indicated he planned to call two to five witnesses, according to the filing.
Collins and the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney declined comment.
Prosecutors on March 29 filed notice of their intent to introduce financial records associated with the alleged theft of at least $364,709 from the shuttered nonprofit Mililani High School Athletic Booster Club.
Records from the Hawaii State Federal Credit Union, First Hawaiian Bank’s Custodian of Record, Barclays Bank Delaware and Bank of Hawaii, and records and testimony from The Orleans Hotel &Casino in Las Vegas and its chief financial officer, will be introduced at trial, according to documents.
The records from Barclay’s consist of “available applications, statements and payments” that were gathered during the execution of a search warrant on July 18, 2021. Casino records for “player accounts, activities and transactions” and “player account information, credit information, credit extended, and payments received” from The Orleans Hotel and Casino were taken after a search warrant was executed June 14, 2022.
At the time the alleged theft was uncovered, the school’s principal, Frederick A.S.W. Murphy, told Honolulu police in a written statement that school officials reviewed 65 bank statements and
1,235 cleared checks from the booster club between Sept. 1, 2015, and Jan. 1, 2021.
Bank of Hawaii turned over “copies of offsets for specific cancelled checks” under the booster club on Dec. 21. The Hawaii State Federal Credit Union gave Honolulu police records related to two loans.
Nitta served as president of the school’s now-dissolved nonprofit, according to state records and Murphy’s statement to police. The nonprofit was incorporated Aug. 23, 2001.
The club’s listed officers were Nitta’s wife, Gaile Nitta, secretary; brother-in-law Phillip Carlos, director; sister-in-law Helen Carlos, treasurer; daughter Glenelle Nitta, a physical education teacher and softball coach at Mililani High School, director; and son Galenn Nitta, director.
According to the March 23, 2021, written statement to Honolulu police, Nitta cut $188,750 in checks to himself “and family members with the last name ‘Nitta’” between 2015 and 2021.
An anonymous tip to the state Department of Education alleged impropriety with the nonprofit’s work with a shirt company owned by Nitta’s son,
Galenn, according to police records.
