Maui Mayor Richard Bissen is the subject of two criminal investigations that have been going on for months, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said Friday — an explosive claim the mayor denies. The chief is asserting the alleged investigations are the reason the chief has been put on paid leave.

“I believe this is a direct result of criminal investigations involving the mayor and his office that began in July of this year,” Pelletier told reporters at a press conference in Honolulu with his attorney, Eric Seitz.

The Maui Police Commission voted 6-0 Wednesday to put Pelletier on administrative leave while an independent investigation is being conducted into the chief’s oversight of the police department’s Criminal Investigation Unit. The unit’s top officer, Lt. Michael Vaituulala, was arrested in August and has been charged in federal court with taking bribes to protect chicken fighting and drug operations.

The nine-member Police Commission is appointed by the mayor. Pelletier and Seitz say they have documentation that Bissen urged the commission to take action against the chief even though he has not been implicated in the FBI investigation. The commission has said putting Pelletier on leave was not a disciplinary action and that he continues to receive full pay and benefits.

According to Seitz and Pelletier, Maui County Council Chair Alice Lee asked Maui police to investigate allegations raised by Bissen’s former chief of staff, Leo Caires, regarding potential fraud and financial mismanagement in the mayor’s administration. Caires, who was fired by Bissen after raising concerns, has filed a lawsuit against the county.

The police department began an investigation in July but soon found out another agency was already conducting a criminal investigation. Pelletier declined to say which agency, but Lee told Civil Beat on Friday it was the Hawaiʻi Attorney General’s Office.

“We are not the lead agency at this point,” Pelletier said, adding that the allegations involve “corruption, fraud and retaliation.”

Toni Schwartz, a spokesperson for the AG’s office, said in an email late Friday: “The Department of the Attorney General will not make statements on the existence or status of investigations or about possible pending cases.”

Pelletier said the police department does have a second investigation into the mayor that involves a possible felony. He refused to elaborate despite repeated questions from reporters. The chief said he has recused himself from any investigation being done by MPD.

Bissen says he is unaware of any criminal investigations.

“No one has notified me or questioned me or arrested me or anything like that,” he told Civil Beat on Friday.

He also said he had not spoken to any commissioners about putting Pelletier on leave prior to Wednesday’s commission meeting.

“I’ve had no influence over the police commission, and really, that’s more of an accusation against them than me,“ he said. “It’s saying that somehow they did something wrong by listening to somebody like me.”

The mayor said on Hawaii News Now he believes Pelletier’s allegations coming out now are politically motivated and designed to influence the Nov. 3 election. He is in a tight race with council member Yuki Lei Sugimura for the mayor’s office. Ballots are scheduled to arrive in mailboxes next week.

Bissen and Pelletier have been at odds since Pelletier was hired as Maui police chief in 2021. Bissen was not yet the mayor — he was elected in 2022 — but openly supported a local deputy chief already in the department for the position. Pelletier had been a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department captain when he got the top Maui job.

The two have clashed publicly on occasion, but their dispute escalated last year when Pelletier was named in a California lawsuit accusing him of being an enforcer for the hip hop star Sean “Diddy” Combs. The case painted a wild tale of kidnapping, gang rape and abuse of power, naming Pelletier as one of numerous high-profile defendants. It was dismissed by a federal judge in December after the plaintiffs failed to file basic paperwork substantiating their case.

The day the lawsuit was filed, Bissen wrote to the Police Commission and asked that Pelletier be put on leave until the lawsuit was resolved. The commission refused that request and a clearly angry Pelletier insisted Friday that the recent action by the commission is a continuation of Bissen’s efforts to undermine him and get rid of him in favor of someone more to the mayor’s liking.

“This whole thing stinks,” Pelletier said.

Seitz said that “there’s substantial evidence that the mayor asked (the Police Commission) to take the action that they took in this instance,” referring to Pelletier’s paid leave.

“The chief is not involved in the other investigation of the lieutenant,” Seitz said, referring to Vaituulala. “There has been no allegation anywhere by anybody, let alone by the federal government, which is handling that case, that Chief Pelletier is in any way implicated by what the lieutenant is alleged to have done.

“So again, we have a situation where the mayor is taking this and looking at it as an opportunity for him to go after the police chief in something that there’s no factual or legal basis for.”

The investigations into the mayor and his office appeared to be the impetus for Bissen stepping up his efforts to get the chief removed, Seitz and Pelletier said.

Lee, the council chair, told Civil Beat that she had reached out to the chief and asked whether his department was investigating the criminal conduct alleged in Caires’ lawsuit.

“He said: ‘We are not. We were not asked, but if asked, we would conduct an investigation,’” Lee said. “So I said, ‘Well, then I am asking.’ And then I put that request in writing.”

According to Lee, Pelletier told her the allegations made by Caires were being investigated by the Attorney General’s Office, so the case was no longer under his jurisdiction, she said. Lee added that since then, she has gotten no clear information regarding the status of the investigation or how long it is expected to take.

“We’re talking about criminal allegations of embezzlement,” she said, referring to a former Bissen administration employee. “We’re not talking about hiring somebody’s brother, or something unethical. We’re talking about a possible felony here, and no one’s keeping us apprised of it.”

Pelletier said Friday the police department has been planning to put a new focus on corruption within county government since the FBI’s investigation opened up potential problems with bribery and protection of illegal operations.

He said the Criminal Investigation Unit was disbanded after Vaituulala’s arrest, but that the department has been considering standing up a new unit that would focus on corruption and integrity at all levels of the county.

“And you know what? That probably makes some people real nervous, because I don’t have obligations to folks here,” he said. “I didn’t go to high school with them. They don’t like that.”

Pelletier said he was at an FBI conference on the mainland when the Police Commission met and decided to put him on leave. He didn’t know that had happened until he got back to Maui later that day and heard it on a local news report.

The commission had told him that the meeting was a routine one and he wasn’t needed, he said.

Seitz said he and Pelletier have been trying to meet with the commission to address Pelletier’s employment situation, but that so far the commission hasn’t responded. He said legal action would be the next step.

Pelletier said he intends to stay on as chief once the independent investigation is over unless the Police Commission removes him, which it has the power to do. He does not have a fixed term as is the case in Honolulu and other counties.

“I’m beyond upset. I’m angry, but I’m also really hurt,” he said. “I don’t take kind to bullies. I’m not going to be intimidated. I’m not going to be bullied. It’s wrong.”