Kauaʻi voters have until Dec. 18 to decide who will be the county’s next prosecuting attorney. Here's a look at one of the two candidates — former Kauaʻi prosecuting attorney Shaylene Iseri.
Shaylene Iseri served as Kauaʻi's prosecuting attorney prior to Justin Kollar's tenure in the office. In the last eight years, she's opened a law firm and taken cases as a defense attorney. She says she carries between 100 and 150 cases, and acknowledges it's a very lucrative business.
"I make a lot more money than I would be making if I was elected as prosecutor," said Iseri. "But it's not why we get into public service . . . It's about the principle. It's about the purpose. It's about the reason why you want to be prosecutor."
Iseri says she's running for her old job again because she's seen a lot of dysfunction and confusion at the prosecutor's office.
Hawaiʻi Public Radio also profiled Kauaʻi prosecuting attorney candidate Rebecca Like.
"This mayhem has led to a lot of injustice, I feel, against our victims and our community," she said.
"I often see repeat offenders are released back into the community and continue to reoffend without any serious consequences. This is direct, first-hand knowledge, because I'm in court almost every day."
Iseri claims acting prosecuting attorney Rebecca Like has done little in convicting criminals — including her clients — who have admitted to their crimes. She believes this may be due to a lack of experience, a deteriorating relationship with Kauaʻi police, staff turnover, and remote work.
"There's a revolving staff that leaves victims, KPD, and defense attorneys constantly wasting time trying to figure out which prosecutor is handling any given matter," said Iseri. "Rarely do the attorneys return phone calls or emails in a timely manner."
If elected, Iseri vows to reopen the office to provide better in-person services for victims and law enforcement. She also vows to improve police officer and deputy prosecutor training.
But she says her primary goal is to address the island's growing drug epidemic.
"In the month of October, there were at least five fentanyl deaths. And it doesn't bring an outcry from that office. Like to evaluate all of these cases, and separate out the users from the traffickers," she said. "There's a big difference. Addicts you can treat, traffickers you cannot."
Iseri says she is determined to support or lead an effort to build a treatment center for adolescents on Kauaʻi. She also would support programs that would help keep Kauaʻi youth on the island — rather than send them off the island for treatment.
Another priority for Iseri is to prosecute cases in a timely manner. She says she's represented clients who would have multiple cases pending in the court system, but was allowed to go home if they could make bail. Iseri says they are not only likely to commit another crime, but also be free to harass victims.
"What we should be doing is taking the first case to trial, because if they get convicted, then they're on probation and there's monitoring at least," she said.
"When you post bail, there's no monitoring. But this is a revolving door. It happens, happens, happens — property crimes five, six, seven or eight times in a whole neighborhood. And the guy is still walking."
In addition to prosecuting in a timely manner, Iseri says she would also re-establish programs and special units with a focus on sexual assault or domestic violence cases. According to Iseri, these programs not only provided training to law enforcement to properly gather evidence and guarantee arrests, but also provided support to victims.
She says she was saddened to see these programs "fall apart" after leaving the office — and that needs to change.
"We were able to increase the conviction rate, at that time which was less than 20%, to 97% convictions," she said. "There were multiple people that were going to jail for 20 years, 40 years. We have seen zero sex assault convictions since I left."
If elected, Iseri pledges to re-establish relationships with victims, Kauaʻi Police, and other partner agencies in order to bring justice to Kauai.
Response to past controversies
Iseri's previous tenure as county prosecutor ended in controversy. Several lawsuits alleged retaliation and a hostile work environment.
Iseri says these were all political moves against her, and the allegations were inaccurate. She says most of the lawsuits settled for 'miniscule' amounts.
"It was like for $75,000, or something like that," she said. "People don't settle for that amount of money unless you don't have a basis for your case in court."
Iseri says she argued to challenge the lawsuits but was told the county was going to settle.
"Then I sued the county because I felt that this was totally improper. And the county then settled with me, and gave me a six-figure settlement," she said. "As far as any truth to it, I totally disagree that there was any truth about any kind of discrimination. And clearly there wasn't any, because all the suits were settled without any admission of liability from myself."
However, the largest lawsuit against Iseri wasfiled by former councilmember Tim Bynum — who alleged he was the victim of wrongful prosecution.
That lawsuit was also settled, but for $250,000.
Iseri refutes the reporting of a recent Civil Beat article — saying she had nothing to do with Bynum's case.
"There is testimony about [me] not having anything to do with this case," she said. "Yet Civil Beat keeps trying to draw this link."
Iseri says she was never contacted to provide a comment on that story.
