The fifth city employee who took cash bribes to move plans through the city Department of Planning and Permitting entered a plea of guilty Wednesday as part of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Jocelyn Godoy, 60, was working in the DPP’s Data Access and Imaging Branch when she allegedly solicited and took bribes from an architect and third-party reviewer, according to court records. She entered a plea of guilty to a single count of honest services wire fraud Wednesday morning before Chief U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson.

Godoy, a current city employee, faces up to 20 years in federal prison, a fine of up to $250,000, a term of supervised release up to three years and a $100 special assessment. She will be sentenced by Watson at 9 a.m. Aug. 30. She will remain free on supervised release ahead of her sentencing.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Craig S. Nolan and Michael D. Nammar, who are prosecuting the case for the government, declined comment. Godoy’s attorney, Victor J. Bakke, declined comment.

“We will review any updates to her plea status and address it accordingly. However, because this is a personnel matter, we have no other details to share at this time,” said Curtis Lum, public information officer for DPP, in a statement to the Honolulu Star- Advertiser.

In response to questions about Godoy’s current employment status, the city told the Star-Advertiser that “civil service rules prevent the city from taking action” that may deprive an employee of their pay and other benefits until a complete “deliberative process and determination can be made of any alleged wrongdoing.”

DPP didn’t identify Godoy’s current role with the city.

Godoy’s immigration status also might come into question given her guilty plea. A message left with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was not immediately returned Wednesday.

In a statement to the Star-Advertiser, DPP Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna said the indictments were a “by-product of a system that has lacked basic infrastructure, including standard operating procedures and systems of accountability.”

“Combined with a permitting backlog, DPP was susceptible to exploitation,” Takeuchi Apuna added. “To prevent further wrongdoing, the DPP is building standard processes and systems that instruct and guide employees how to properly perform their jobs and to instill accountability. The Department has conducted numerous investigations in the past two years to better understand where exploitation may be happening and to demonstrate that there are consequences for any alleged wrongdoing.”

According to the memorandum of plea agreement filed Wednesday, between September 2019 and November 2020, Godoy was employed by the city Depart­- ment of Planning and Permitting Data Access and Imaging Branch.

“During the employment, the defendant engaged in a scheme to secretly use her official position to enrich herself by taking bribes in exchange for official actions,” read the agreement.

Godoy “solicited and accepted gifts, payments, and other things of value totaling at least $820.25” from an architect and third-party reviewer, referred to in federal court records as “Architect 1.” Godoy provided “favorable official action” on behalf of Architect 1 as requested and as opportunities arose, including by emailing him electronic copies of DPP documents in response to electronic communications.

Architect 1 is William Wong, who entered a plea of guilty April 7, 2021, to a single count of honest serv­ices wire fraud for paying more than $89,000 in bribes and will be sentenced Dec. 1.

Godoy saved Wong the “time and expense of appearing at DPP to obtain hard copies of DPP documents and then digitizing those documents,” according to the plea agreement.

Godoy hid her activity by “taking bribes in cash and using a personal cellphone” for communicating.

She did not inform DPP of the bribes or what she did for them.

On Sept. 25, 2019, “for the purpose of executing the scheme to defraud,” Godoy knowingly transmitted a “wire communication in interstate commerce in the form of a text message” to Wong that read, “Let me know if you want both do it can go on your long tab. Lol.”

Watson will sentence Wong at 10:30 a.m. July 27.

Godoy, Wong and three others were indicted for their roles in the pay to permit scheme.

Wayne Inouye, 65, who retired from city service in 2017, was indicted March 17, 2021, by federal prosecutors who charged him with six counts of honest services wire fraud and one count of lying to federal investigators.

Inouye, who created a company to help accept bribes, lied to an FBI agent and an assistant U.S. attorney on July 11, 2019, that $100,000 was a loan from Wong, according to federal court documents.

Inouye, who did not reach a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, faces up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of probation for each count of honest services wire fraud. He faces five years in federal prison for lying to investigators.

He will be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. May 24 by U.S. District Leslie E. Kobayashi.

On June 27, Watson sentenced former building plans examiner Jennie Javonillo, 72, to 2-1/2 years in prison and two years of federal probation for soliciting and accepting bribes to expedite permit applications.

Watson also ordered Javonillo to pay a $5,000 fine and a special assessment of $100. The judge previously ordered her to forfeit $58,000 to the government as part of a plea deal. She pleaded guilty Jan. 25 to one count of honest services wire fraud in exchange for the government dropping two identical charges.

Jason Dadez, a former DPP building inspector, pleaded guilty Feb. 14 to a charge that involved accepting a $1,000 check from owners of a Waipahu restaurant and corresponding with an architect about an Ala Wai Boulevard residence.

On July 6, he was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

Kanani Padeken, a former DPP building plans examiner who pleaded guilty in April 2021 to charges of wire fraud and admitted taking at least $28,000 in bribes, will be sentenced by Watson at 9 a.m. Aug. 22.