Attorney for Maui police chief threatens legal action amid prosecutor’s rebuke
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The Maui County Police Commission voted unanimously Oct. 7 to place Maui Police Chief John Pelletier on paid administrative leave, setting off another public dispute involving the chief and Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen.
A letter from the commission to Pelletier dated Oct. 7 said commissioners had reviewed the criminal complaint against MPD Lt. Michael Vaituulala and hired an independent investigator to examine Pelletier's oversight of the Criminal Intelligence Unit.
The commission said Pelletier's presence at work could be detrimental to the investigation and department operations.
"Further, this leave is intended to protect the independence and integrity of the investigation and ensure public trust and confidence in the Maui Police Department," the letter stated. "It is an interim administrative measure and the Commission has made no finding of misconduct. Your pay and benefits will continue during your paid administrative leave."
Pelletier was ordered not to exercise the authority of the police chief and to return department- and county-issued property. He was also directed to preserve records relevant to the investigation and cooperate with the independent investigator.
His leave will remain in effect until the commission reviews the completed investigative report and takes final action.
Speaking to news media with his attorney Oct. 9 on Oahu, Pelletier accused the commission of acting to remove him at Bissen's direction. Pelletier said he believes he was removed from his post because Bissen and the mayor's office are under investigation.
"I will tell you it's a felonious crime, and the mayor is the suspect," Pelletier said at the press conference.
Responding to questions from the media, Pelletier said the investigation has been ongoing since August and that he had recused himself because of previous conflicts with the mayor. He offered few other details about the investigation.
Bissen denied having any involvement in the commission's decision and told Hawaii News Now he has not been informed by any source that he is under investigation, especially by the Maui Police Department.
Bissen said he believes the police chief "is trying to influence the mayor's race on Maui." Ballots are scheduled to go out this week as Bissen faces a challenge from Maui County Council Vice Chair Yuki Lei Sugimura.
On Oct. 9, Pelletier's attorney, Eric Seitz, sent Maui Police Commission Chair Frank Tam a letter demanding Pelletier be reinstated immediately.
"As you know this is now the second time that Chief Pelletier has been threatened with summary removal from his official duties by the Police Commission at the request of and/or on the initiative of Mayor Bissen," the letter reads.
Seitz was referring to a lawsuit against rapper P. Diddy that named Odell Beckham Jr., comedian Druski and Pelletier among the defendants. The lawsuit accused Pelletier of helping Diddy and his entourage cover up a sexual assault and kidnapping, but was disproven and dismissed before it got any traction in court.
Before the suit was dismissed, Bissen had recommended the police commission put Pelletier on leave while those allegations were investigated. The commission opted to keep Pelletier in the role.
"The first removal was an utter embarrassment for everybody involved," Seitz's letter continues. "This second event is even more seriously flawed since it appears to be related to an on-going criminal investigation of the Mayor himself. If this matter is not immediately resolved, we will initiate appropriate litigation raising, among other claims, our concerns about deliberate and malicious defamation that adversely affects Chief Pelletier both personally and professionally."
On Tuesday, Maui County Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin issued a news release disputing Pelletier's assertion and declaring: "Bissen was not a target of the criminal investigation recently referenced by John Pelletier."
"Law enforcement agencies do not publicly name the subjects of an investigation unless and until there is probable cause to support an arrest or a charge," Martin said. "This is a basic rule of investigative practice and professional ethics."
Martin said the rule protects investigations, people who cooperate with them and people who may never be charged from having their reputations damaged by public criminal accusations.
"Chief Pelletier violated this fundamental tenet of criminal investigations and told the public something that is simply not true," Martin said.
Martin said the investigation Pelletier referenced last week began in the prosecutor's department in 2024 and that Bissen was not its target.
"Falsely naming someone as the target of a criminal investigation is bad enough, but coming from the head of a police department in service of a political fight, Chief Pelletier's false statement was a betrayal of public trust," Martin said.
In August 2024, Luana Mahi, then-director of the Maui County Office of Economic Development, was put on leave pending an investigation into alleged misuse of grants and public funds.
Martin said he became aware that month of allegations presented to the Maui County Board of Ethics concerning "an individual within the Office of Economic Development."
The county Department of Finance sent the prosecutor's office a summary of its own investigation in November 2024 and provided additional documentation the following month. A criminal investigation into the possible misuse of county grant funds was opened in January 2025, according to Martin.
"That decision was made before any civil lawsuit entered the picture," Martin said.
In April, Bissen's former chief of staff, Leo Caires, filed a lawsuit against the county alleging Bissen fired him for raising concerns about suspected fraud involving grants through the Mayor's Office of Economic Development.
Bissen has strongly denied the allegations in Caires' lawsuit.
Martin said his office and the state Department of the Attorney General's Special Investigation and Prosecution Division agreed to jointly investigate the matter. In March 2026, Martin asked the state division to take sole responsibility for prosecutorial decisions.
"I made that decision in part because of concerns that people within Maui County government would politicize this investigation," Martin said. "Unfortunately, the events of the past several days have shown that concern was justified."
The Maui Police Commission's Oct. 7 meeting agenda called for discussion and possible action regarding its independent investigation into Pelletier's oversight of the Criminal Intelligence Unit and related supervisory actions.
The meeting was not broadcast, but Hawaii News Now reported that commissioners unanimously voted to put Pelletier on leave while he was returning from an FBI conference in New Jersey.
Deputy Chief Wade Maeda, whom commissioners named acting chief, emphasized that Pelletier had not been accused of a crime or of violating administrative rules, according to Hawaii News Now.
"They are going to get blasted if we go to court because there is absolutely no justification for removing the chief without at least some kind of showing of factual or legal basis," Seitz said over the phone Wednesday. "As far as I know there is none. ... I guess the allegation is, 'This happened on his watch so you're somehow responsible for it.' I don't know."
MPD confirmed Pelletier was placed on paid leave and said the department is cooperating with the commission's investigation.
The commission's action follows the Aug. 6 arrest of Vaituulala, who is awaiting adjudication in U.S. District Court on a charge of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.
According to a criminal complaint, Vaituulala accepted cash payments to help chicken fight organizers operate without police interference, helped drug traffickers avoid prosecution and promoted illegal fireworks.
He is accused of sharing confidential law enforcement information, including the identity of a confidential source and information about federal investigations.
After Vaituulala's arrest, Pelletier announced the Criminal Intelligence Unit would be disbanded as MPD worked to restore public trust.
No other Maui police officers have been accused of crimes in connection with Vaituulala's arrest.
On Wednesday, Seitz continued to question Pelletier's removal, saying Vaituulala actually reported to the deputy chief, not directly to Pelletier. He also disputed that Pelletier's accusations were politically motivated or tied to the upcoming election.
"We didn't choose the timing. We had nothing to do with that," Seitz said of commissioners' decision to put the chief on paid leave.