Judge warns defendant in Honolulu gambling case

Tuesday, July 25, 2000 | 10:15 a.m.

Prosecutors had sought to revoke bail for Gabriel Aio for improperly contacting Steve Crouch through a third party.

Crouch testified the contact had to do with the evidence and with the sale of Hokulani's Bar, which the two men and their wives owned.

Magistrate Barry Kurren let Aio off with a warning.

The two men were arrested after a three-year investigation in which Honolulu police officer Earl Koanui pretended to be a corrupt cop on the take from Honolulu gamblers.

But the two men say they were conducting their own investigation into police corruption.

Croch testified that he recorded the serial numbers of protection money paid to Koanui.

Crouch and Aio also secretly tape-recorded their meetings with Koanui, according to Michael Greene, Aio's lawyer.

Aio, 54, and Crouch, 46, are charged in a federal indictment with providing protection for a gambling operation in a Maunakea Street building. Thirty other people are named in the indictment for alleged gambling and money-laundering.

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