Committee rejects settlement with former prosecuting attorney

Don Guzman filed lawsuit last year over his firing in 2020

A Maui County Council committee has rejected a proposed settlement offer from former Maui County Prosecuting Attorney Don Guzman, who sued the county last year over his firing in 2020.

The council's Government Relations, Ethics and Transparency Committee unanimously voted Tuesday to file the resolution.

The vote came after an executive session with Corporation Counsel Moana Lutey, who informed council members about the settlement offer behind closed doors, saying she could not discuss it in public, due to "federal rules" that "makes this a confidential communication and that was designated by plaintiff's counsel."

After hearing testimony urging the county not to settle the suit, Lutey explained that she is obligated "by the rules of ethics" to bring the settlement offer to the council "but it in no way means that I'm urging this body to settle or otherwise."

"We are in active litigation and it's not that we have given up here," Lutey later said.

In open session, committee members did not discuss their reasons for filing the resolution.

Several testifiers at Tuesday's meeting urged the county not to settle. This included Leslee Matthews, a former deputy prosecuting attorney who filed a complaint following an email exchange and angry confrontation with Guzman regarding a coronavirus-related safety plan when he headed the prosecutor's office in 2020.

Following her complaint, the county hired an outside investigator in September 2020 who concluded that Guzman had violated county workplace violence rules.

Mayor Michael Victorino, who appointed Guzman to be prosecuting attorney in March 2019, placed Guzman on administrative leave without pay Sept. 15, 2020, and fired him on Oct. 19, 2020. After testimony by Matthews and others at a Maui County Council committee meeting Nov. 5, 2020, the council voted unanimously on Dec. 4, 2020 to remove Guzman from the job.

"When the council took the brave decision to vote unanimously to remove the former prosecutor, I can't tell you the number of women in my former office who came up to me crying saying, 'Thank you Leslee, I can never share my story.' They never shared their story with their husbands, because the rage that would ensue when they knew what this man has done to them," Matthews said during Tuesday's meeting.

She added that she was "displeased that the county did not have the common decency to call us to let us know" about the settlement resolution, but that they were here again "risking our dignity, our time to say 'no, no more.' "

The suit filed in April 2021 says Guzman suffered from diabetic neuropathy and other negative impacts, such as diabetic rage and the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to an angry confrontation with a deputy prosecutor. Guzman said he told the county administration about his condition during a meeting on Oct. 16, 2020, but was unable to further explain his condition to Victorino and others days before he was fired.

Guzman added that he did opt to have a council committee hearing on his employment in open session but the committee members "solicited and accepted" what he felt was "false and inaccurate testimony from numerous people who provided testimony based on rumors and hearsay."

The complaint added that "there was no way" that Guzman "could have effectively rebutted irrelevant and unsupporting testimony he did not reasonably anticipate would be put forth, much of which was hearsay," the complaint said.

Lutey said Tuesday that of Guzman's three claims in the suit, one claim of not providing Guzman procedural due process prior to his termination still stands.

The other two claims -- that his right to privacy was violated and that he had been discriminated against due to a disability -- were dismissed by a federal judge, she said.

Another court date for the parties is set for Aug. 25 in U.S. District Court on Oahu, Lutey said. She added she will then update the committee.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.