Former state public safety employee on Kaua‘i pleads guilty to embezzling government funds

A former Hawai‘i Department of Public Safety employee waived indictment and pleaded guilty to first-degree theft and official misconduct during a hearing on Monday in Fifth Circuit Court on Kaua‘i.

Lisa Kuwamura, who worked as an account clerk for the Sheriff Division – Kauaʻi Section, manipulated computer records that tracked her time and attendance between Oct. 1, 2021, and June 20, 2024, in order to receive more than $64,000 in unearned compensation.

This will be the first Official Misconduct conviction since the Legislature enacted the anticorruption law in 2023. Kuwamura is slated to be sentenced on June 4, 2026.

For the theft charge, which is a class B felony, Kuwamura faces up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. For the official misconduct charge, a class C felony, she faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

“We expect public employees to uphold the highest standards of integrity and accountability. When that trust is violated, my department will take decisive action,” said Attorney General Anne Lopez. “I commend the dedicated work of our Special Investigation and Prosecution Division and our strong partnership with the Department of Law Enforcement, in ensuring that misconduct is thoroughly investigated and prosecuted.”

The investigation was conducted by the Department of the Attorney General’s Special Investigation and Prosecution Division and the Hawai‘i Department of Law Enforcement’s Office of the Inspector General.

“The Hawaiʻi Department of Law Enforcement takes allegations of employee misconduct seriously. After we were made aware of the allegations of theft, we partnered with the Department of the Attorney General’s Special Investigation and Prosecution Division to ensure that a fair and comprehensive investigation was conducted, so that the employee in question could be held accountable for violating the trust of the department and the community. We hope this serves as a reminder to everyone that no matter who you work for, no one is above the law.”

The attorney general’s Special Investigation and Prosecution Division is the state of Hawaiʻi’s primary law enforcement unit responsible for investigating and prosecuting corruption, fraud and economic crimes. The public can report corruption, fraud and economic crime using the Submit a Tip feature on the SIPD website at https://ag.hawaii.gov/sipd/tips/.