Keith Kaneshiro, Honolulu’s former top prosecutor, is accused of pursuing phony charges against a former employee of Mitsunaga & Associates Inc. who’s taken the witness stand, as Madeleine Valera tells Editor-at-Large Naka Nathaniel.

Laurel Mau is one of the government’s central witnesses in the bribery trial. Her former employers said she stole from the company by conducting side jobs using Mitsunaga & Associates’ resources.

But prosecutors say the charges were phony, and Kaneshiro’s office only pursued the case after the firm’s CEO Dennis Mitsunaga funneled thousands of dollars in donations to Kaneshiro’s campaign.