 Aloha, and welcome to the Business in Hawaii show. I'm Gailen Hanagira and we are broadcasting live from the Pacific Digital Studio in Waikiki, Hawaii. This is a treat from broadcasting from somewhere else, so thanks for joining me. If you do want to tune in live, we are at www.thinktecawaii.com and when there, please subscribe to our show and get on our mailing list. The theme of business in Hawaii is to share with you stories of local businesses by local people, and we share our guest journey on how to build successful businesses right here at home. In the Think Tech Studio today with me is candidate for prosecuting attorney, Megan Kau. Megan, thank you so much for joining us today and welcome, welcome to the show. Oh, we are honored and I know it's a crazy time right now for everyone with all the changes that are happening. And I really appreciate the time that you're taking to speak with us. I did want to start by asking you a little bit about Megan Kau Law. So I know you have your own law firm. Can you tell us about the law firm and how you got started? Sure. Well, after I left the prosecutor's office in 2010, I actually started building up my practice from then on. So 2011 and on. So I've been building the practice for nine years now. I officially opened in January of 2018. And I had worked for a couple small civil firms and I had my own practice before that as well. But this time I went full force. I have four employees and I got legal software made for lawyers. We all use it. And we now use a cloud based software database system. So all of our documents and pleadings are saved on a shared drive through Microsoft. So tell me how you in the field of law and how'd you find your way there? It's kind of an ironic story. I never wanted to be a lawyer ever. People would tell me when I was young, you're going to be a lawyer. And when I was working for a CPA because I wanted to be a CPA, he told me you should go to law school. And I would tell everybody no. I'm deathly afraid of public speaking. And I'm deathly afraid of people and I want to just sit behind a desk and fill out IRS forms and never have to talk to anybody, because that's what I was comfortable doing. So, but I eventually went to law school because the CPA that I was working for said, well, you don't have to do trials and litigation. You can do transactional law. You can do all the paperwork and sit behind the desk and I said, okay, that's what I want to do. So I went to law school. So where'd you go to law school? I went to Santa Clara University in Northern California. Nice. Um, so tell me about the journey. That linked me to wanting to return to the prosecutor's office. Um, it has been quite a journey. I will say that owning your own business in Hawaii is very difficult. It's very difficult to find employees that are very good and very loyal to your company. And it's going to struggle, but I will say now we have a very prosperous firm and the employees that I have are excellent. They all except for one of them work from home, and they are all remote. And whenever they want to go pick up their kids or spend time with their kids they do. And they all get their work done on time and they produce very good work and they believe that we have a mutual loyalty to one another. And so we run a very strong firm. When we go to trainings, people notice. Coincidentally, we're all females. That was not on purpose, but we are one is a former fraud investigator. One is a former captain in the military. One is a law student and one is my legal assistant. And so when we go to trainings, we all go together and we all learn together. And we're very supportive of one another. So it's a great and prosperous firm. However, last year when Peter Carlisle was deciding whether he should run for prosecutor or not. You know, he and I sat down and had some very heart to heart discussions and Peter Carlisle has wanted me to run for prosecuting attorney since 2015. And I didn't want to. I was much younger than I was much less experienced at that time I hadn't actually had the opportunity to open and run my business and hire employees and train students. So I was at a point where I probably could have run at the time, but I definitely was not experienced like I am now. So when Peter and I were having these conversations, it kind of was the natural thing for me to run in for him to be able to just retire. His wife I think was very appreciative of that decision because, you know, Peter has worked a long time in the public eye and I think that for the spouse, it gets a little exhausting. And she wanted her own private time so we kind of all decided as a family or a group that I would run in Peter would not. Wow, wow. I think that says a lot about you to be endorsed by Peter Carlisle and you, you must come into a space that I'm sure your credentialing is, you know, is well deserved. So, specifically you practice law in, in what space is it is it just criminal or So now actually the majority of my practice is civil litigation. I know the news media always calls me a criminal defense attorney but because I'm because I'm certified as a public accountant but I'm non practicing. I do take more civil cases than criminal cases. It's just that the criminal cases I do take are very high publicity and typically controversial. I do take very difficult criminal cases because I have the staff that allows me to do things like that. So I have a very big fraud case right now. And my paralegal does the majority of the work for three lawyers. My firm is set up so that we're able to do it. It's not just me. And so because we have a process, the legal or legal secretary processes the discovery, my paralegal reviews the discovery and then I review her notes. It works for very big cases. However, most of my cases are civil cases. For example, I was just one of the attorneys on the Kwananaquah case where we were seeking a conservator for Abigail Kwananaquah. And that was a three day long hearing. I also do other trust litigation. I do property litigation. I do asset disputes between partners. I have property dispute between family members. I also do personal injury cases. So probably 85% of my caseload is made up of civil cases. Those are civil cases. You know, initially when you had said that you wanted to do something behind the scenes and just sit in your space and work on the transactional piece. Really, the cases that you've mentioned in the space that you work is very much front and center, very much dealing with people. How did you step out of your comfort zone? So never say never. Yeah, because when I was applying for all of the big firms after I got certified as a public accountant. I kept meeting with these firms and saying I'm certified as a public accountant and I'm a lawyer please hire me and nobody would hire me. So one of the managing partners took me to lunch, interviewed me and he said, are you having a difficult time getting into the firms and I said yes. And he said, do you want me to tell you why and I said, yes please. And he said, you're a trial attorney. We see in you that you should be a trial attorney. And I said, Oh, I don't want to do that. I'm definitely afraid of public speaking. And he said, maybe you should go try and work at the prosecutor's office. And I said, no, I can't prosecute a case I'm definitely afraid of juries and public speaking and he said, why don't you just try it. So I went to Peter Carlaw and I said, please hire me and he said, well, what lawyers do you know and at that point in time I didn't know any lawyers because I was in the accounting profession. And he said, well, what officers do you know from the police department and I said, I don't know any. And he said, and why should I hire you because I'm good. And he said, okay, and he hired me right on the spot. And as I went through the prosecutor's office, I got promoted very quickly, and eventually to the career criminal division. From a very, from the domestic violence misdemeanor division, which is, which is unusual. I jumped some some steps. Wow. As a woman was did you find it hard to work in, in that particular division. I will say as a woman, it's difficult to work in the legal profession, completely. I mean it is the year 2020 and I believe that we have as a society progressed. But I get a lot of pushback, let's call it. I'm younger, I'm female. And so, you know, I do get a lot of pushback. But you fight through it and you stand your ground and you say, I'm here to fight and then you do what you need to do. And quite obviously you've done it just. I want to talk to you about the prosecutor's office, you're running for office prosecuting attorney. What does that mean. So the prosecuting attorney is the head lawyer of the prosecutor's office and how I explain it to people is, there's civil litigation, and there's criminal litigation. The civil litigation where people sue people or people sue entities, where the consequences are money damages only is for the city department is run by the corporation council. And they handle all cases where somebody from the city government being sued, let's say somebody falls at a city park and breaks her knee, and now she wants to sue the city. The corporation council division handles those cases. On the other hand, there's the criminal division of the city departments, and that's the prosecutor's office. And the prosecutor's office's job is to objectively apply the criminal laws to anyone that violates the law. And so, on Oahu, the Honolulu prosecutor's office prosecutes probably 90% of the criminal cases. The attorney general's office handles the rest of the cases but those are very specific, for example, Medicaid fraud, or welfare fraud, or conflict cases that the prosecutors can't take, or electronic enticement of a minor. So the attorney general's office handles a very small amount of the criminal cases. The Honolulu prosecutor's office election really does apply to everybody on Oahu. And small business owners, individuals, anybody that lives on Oahu should be very concerned about this race because as we can all see, unfortunately, there is an increase in crime. I think that the information, just that information is really important for everyone to understand. I mean, even myself as someone who's been born and raised in Hawaii doesn't really know what the prosecutor's office does. And particularly for our audience, who are generally small business owners and entrepreneurs, I think it's really important for us to understand just exactly what the prosecuting attorney's office does for us. And so we're going to go to a quick break, but when we come back, I would love for you to share with us some of the specific things that prosecuting attorney can do for small business, business owners, and how in turn we can help the prosecuting attorney's office. So this business in Hawaii will be right back. Aloha, I'm Keisha King, host of Crossroads in Learning on ThinkTech Hawaii. On Crossroads in Learning, our guest and I discuss all aspects of education here in Hawaii and throughout the country. You can join us for stimulating conversations to enrich, enliven, and educate. We are streamed live on ThinkTech biweekly at 4pm on Mondays. Thanks so much for watching our show. We look forward to seeing you then. Aloha. Welcome back. This is Business in Hawaii. With us today is Megan Kao, candidate for prosecuting attorney. Megan, thanks again for joining us. I think this is such an important discussion for us to hear, particularly for small businesses and business owners, owners, and how the prosecuting attorney, the seat that you're running for is that we work together and what we can do for one another. So if you could share with us, you know, what are some of those definitions that we need to know? What does the prosecuting attorney do for business owners and small businesses? So my experience as a deputy prosecutor and a defense attorney is that small business owners or employees are usually affected via misdemeanors. So there is a different process for misdemeanor offenses and felony offenses. A misdemeanor offense is when it's a jailable offense up to a maximum of one year. A felony offense is any offense that is punishable by more than one year in prison. So typically 5, 10, or 20 years. And I will say the small business owner is usually a victim of smaller misdemeanor crimes. And so the concern with business owners is time, right? Because because we own our own business, if we're not working, we're not getting paid. And if we're not working, we can't pay our employees. So that puts a very heavy burden on small business owners, which I am very familiar with. So in the district court where misdemeanor cases are prosecuted, it's kind of crazy because there are high volumes of cases. These are theft cases, assault third cases, harassment cases. They're not the big assault cases, assault in the second degree or assault in the first degree. They're not usually murders. And so what happens in district court is because the way the prosecutor's office is set up, it's the brand new deputies that are running the courtroom down there. So when small business owners are subpoenaed to come to court, they sit there from 830 and they wait until they're told what to do, either to testify or leave because they have to come back another day. And that can be very frustrating for a small business owner because they're sitting there saying, what's going on? And unfortunately, and even when I was there, it's such a high volume and because they're deputies, they don't really have their system down yet. And so it can be very frustrating for someone that's either a victim or a witness of a case. If I were the prosecuting attorney, I would definitely have more communication with the victims and witnesses. I would want my deputies to call them in advance. Let them know, hey, you don't have to come to court, but if we do go to trial, we need you to come within, you know, 10 minutes of our call and make sure that you're available to testify. And in addition, you know, and I've learned this from owning my own business and from having to explain things from clients, I want the deputies to explain the justice system to the victim or to the witness, because very too often they come to court and they're sitting there looking around and there's hundreds of people on the floor and police officers walking around and defendants walking around and the witness or the victim is sitting there like, what do I do next? What's going to happen? And their questions are not answered. And I am all about communication. So I would want the deputies to be able to say, hey, via a phone call, you know, a couple of days before the hearing, this is what to expect. And I think that's how small business owners are affected the most. There are felony cases and usually this is like bank fraud. People get ahold of their checks somehow or thefts greater than $750. And I think that's another big concern for small business owners because we worked so hard for our money and we built what we believe is a great company. And then somebody comes and steals from us. And it doesn't affect us in that just that one instance. It actually grows because now your credit is ruined. And now someone won't give you a loan. And so it kind of slow balls into something greater. And a small business owner sitting there like, I didn't even do anything wrong. And now I'm being, you know, damaged. And so I think white collar crimes are going to be on the rise because people find out, you know, suspects or defendants find out a way to get through things, a way to break through computers and software. And so I think we're going to have to start focusing more on white collar crimes and given my accounting background. That's my strong point. So I'm sure that to campaign that you've talked to quite a few small business owners and entrepreneurs. What are they interested in, in you doing different than what is being done now. Well, no one's really been a victim of a crime the people that I've talked to, fortunately for them have never been involved in the justice system. And what I tell people is that's great. If you are not familiar with the justice system and you don't have anything to correct. It's because you've never been a victim. You've never been a witness, or you've never been a suspect or a defendant of a case and that's great. But the problem is, and what I see most people concerned about is the uptick in crime. I have explained this to them to people I have a theory about it. There is a wave across the nation. And it's called progressive prosecution and what prosecutors are doing now is not charging low level crimes. So the prosecutor is deciding. I'm not going to charge a crime if someone just feels a car, or I'm not going to charge a crime if someone breaks into a home but doesn't hurt anybody. And these progressive prosecutors have taken this position, number one, because they're concerned about the overcrowding in jail. And number two, they believe that prosecuting people doesn't help people, and that it's inhumane. And that is, we end up where we are right now, which is an increase in crime, because the person that stole a car 10 times, and that didn't get caught is now more brazen and more brave. So now, the 11th time he steals a car, not only is he going to steal a car, but when the person says no, step back from my car, don't steal my car. This person who's gotten away with stealing a car 10 times feels entitled, and he now punches the person. So now he's looking at assault or robbery, and the victim is now injured. So my, my point is, we have to charge all crimes, whether they're low level crimes. And I'll tell you, a small business owner who has his or her goods stolen from them. If it's just a misdemeanor crime, I believe that that person is going to want the suspect prosecuted, because we work hard for, you know, our business and why does somebody get to say, Well, don't worry about that, just stole from you, we're not going to charge that person. My, my position is, No, I work hard for my money. I don't violate the law. I'm a tax paying citizen. I want that person that stole from me prosecuted, so that either you deter the person from doing it again, or the person is punished and realizes that maybe if he or she does it the next time, they're going to have to think twice about it. So is this sort of a sentence where they can get certain people can come into our businesses, and perhaps break in not hurt anyone, and be treated with a misdemeanor, and do that repetitively and they, they still don't suffer any severe repercussions. Yeah, so there are a couple things about that. First of all, yeah, it's been very difficult to get the prosecutors with this wave of progressive prosecution to prosecute low level crimes, for example, theft. And in addition, I think my recollection is that the legislature this legislator is currently trying to get rid of the, the habitual theft crimes so when I was a prosecutor, if you're convicted of theft, more than three times, and now becomes a felony so you're going to have a larger or longer amount of time in prison. I believe that the legislators are now trying to get rid of that statute, kind of like they're going backwards, not only are they trying to decriminalize these habitual thefts they're also trying to to get rid of two ounces of drugs. So if you have two ounces of crystal methamphetamine heroin heroin or cocaine, it's now a misdemeanor, whereas before when I was a prosecutor it was a felony. Wow. Wow. So I know recently in the media, you know, we've heard some small business owners long time mom and pops business owners that are saying, you know, we keep getting hit by these crimes. It's hard on the business. It's a safety issue for employees. And so a lot of these small businesses are thinking about closing their doors and some of these businesses have been around since, since I was a child even before I was a child. And that's really a shame because Hawaii's built on small business. What do you think about that? I see it happening. It's very disappointing. And people have to remember this is not something that happened overnight, right. This is I believe a result of the current administration being in this position for 10 years now. And it took 10 years for us to get to the point where criminals are like why can do whatever I want because the police department tries to charge a case they bring it to the prosecutor's office and the prosecutor's office as well, we're not going to charge it. And I'll tell you, the police department is very upset about this. I'm close to a lot of police officers who are on the ground. They want, they want a prosecutor that's going to prosecute the cases that they bring in. So, unfortunately, it's going to take because it's taken 10 years to get this to this point, it's going to take some time to get to a point where we've got law and order back, where the criminals know Honolulu is not going to stand for this anymore. And so that involves prosecuting every case, working with HPD so that the suspects know we can't just get away with with matter basically. Just about tell me and tell our viewers are small business owners, entrepreneurs. How can we support you in your run for prosecuting attorney? I think the biggest thing for the prosecutor's race is everyone has to start talking about it. Before when Peter was the prosecutor for 14 years, no one ever talked about it because he did a great job as the prosecutor. People loved him. There was no controversy. He maintained law and order. But now, I think that people need to go and do their due diligence because I have taken the position that we need to charge every crime. There are two options for defendants, prison or voluntary treatment. And if they're not going to go into treatment, we've got to force them into either prison or force them into going into treatment. There's no other way to do it. And the other candidates that are running for this position have taken the position that they want to let defendants out of jail without cash bail being posted. They don't want to charge low-level crimes. They don't want to charge people for having cocaine or heroin on their person. And I'm saying that's exactly where the root of all evil starts is the drug abuse. So yes, we have to charge them. So in order to support me, you can go to my website, friendsofmagancow.com. I'm very active on Facebook. I do a lot of Facebook live events. You can also support me. I know it's hard now, but if people are willing to hold meet and greets where I can come and talk to people and explain the prosecutor's office in person, I'm very happy to do that. And I'm excited to do it. I love to do it. So yeah, they can just be very interested and talk about it and spread the word about the prosecutor's office. Well, Megan, I have to tell you that I am a successful run for property attorney and we're behind you all the way. Unfortunately, we are out of time. I would love, love to keep talking to you because I know there's just so many things that we don't know about what the prosecuting attorney can do for us as small business owners and entrepreneurs. So we'll make sure to connect with you again. But thank you again for joining us. If you would like to be a guest on our show, please like us, subscribe and leave a comment below. Business in Hawaii airs every Thursday at 2pm and we look forward to seeing you here next week.