HONOLULU (CN) — More than a decade after Laurel Mau was arrested on felony theft charges, a federal judge ruled that her lawsuit accusing Honolulu officials and private actors of retaliatory prosecution can move forward.
U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel on Tuesday issued a split decision allowing key portions of Mau’s conspiracy claims to proceed against Honolulu’s former prosecuting attorney and executives at the engineering firm where she once worked. The ruling comes nearly two years after a federal jury acquitted those same defendants of bribery charges in a separate criminal trial.
Mau claims there was a coordinated effort to punish her for suing her former employer, Mitsunaga & Associates, involving campaign donations to then-Prosecuting Attorney Keith Kaneshiro, who brought the now-dismissed criminal charges against her…