An elderly architect convicted of bribery for trying to slip a Honolulu permit reviewer some cash – what he said was $20 for oxtail soup – was sentenced on Thursday to two years of probation.
Hawaiʻi Circuit Court Judge Kevin Souza found Kiyoshi Toi, 92, guilty last year of trying to pass money to a city employee through a handshake in November 2022. The Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting worker, Alexander Laurente, refused the money and reported the incident.
Honolulu deputy prosecutor Lydia Fuatagavi asked the court for two days of prison time, minus time served, and four years of probation. But Souza said incarceration would cause an “excessive hardship.”…