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    Not guilty plea entered in campaign contributions case

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    By Leila Fujimori

    Copyright staradvertiser

    Not guilty plea entered in campaign contributions case

    Trial in state court is set in November for a 70-year-old former corporate
    secretary and human resources director with
    Mitsunaga &Associates charged with making campaign contributions under false names during the 2020 election cycle.

    Terri Ann Otani was
    arraigned Monday in Oahu Circuit Court and pleaded not guilty to four counts of false name contributions — Class C felonies — alleged by the Department of the Attorney General in an Aug. 28 felony information document.

    Otani was indicted
    June 2, 2022, in federal court, along with other
    Mitsunaga &Associates executives, for allegedly
    conspiring with former Hono-lulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro to charge a former employee with felony theft in exchange for making $45,000 in campaign contributions to Kaneshiro.

    A jury returned a not guilty verdict May 17, 2024, for Otani, Dennis Mitsunaga, president of the architecture and engineering firm, and two other Mitsunaga executives, along with Kaneshiro.

    From 2010 to 2020, Mitsu-naga &Associates and Mitsunaga Construction Inc., including the four indicted executives, donated $2.1 million to candidates for state and county office.

    Otani alone gave $460,000 in campaign
    contributions.

    On Monday, Otani
    appeared with her attorney, Doris Lum, before Circuit Judge Ronald Johnson, but had been absent from a Sept. 8 arraignment.

    Johnson confirmed her bail at $4,000. She posted cash bail Sept. 3, and was released from custody.

    The charging document alleges Otani made contributions on July 1, 2020 to Hanabusa 2020, Colleen Hanabusa’s mayoral campaign, for $250 in cash in the name of Jo Ann Aurello and for $500 in cash in the name of Jodee Haugh. Both were not the owners of the cash.

    Otani is also accused of making two contributions July 24, 2020, to the same campaign for $250 in cash in Aurello’s name, and $1,000 in cash in Haugh’s name.

    The judge granted the state’s motion for a no-contact order, which prohibits Otani from contacting,
    approaching or communicating with Aurello and Haugh, who are named as state’s witnesses.

    Her trial is set for the week of Nov. 17 before Judge James Kawashima.

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