Maui Police Chief John Pelletier’s claims that Mayor Richard Bissen is under criminal investigation are false allegations “in service of a political fight,” Maui County Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin said Tuesday.

Pelletier made the allegations after being placed on paid leave Wednesday by the Maui Police Commission, which is conducting an investigation into the chief’s oversight of the Criminal Intelligence Unit, whose former head was arrested and charged by federal authorities for public corruption.

On Friday, Pelletier claimed Bissen was the target of two criminal investigations and that Bissen pressured the commission to put him on leave because of those investigations.

In a detailed press release Tuesday, Martin pushed back against Pelletier’s comments, saying that not only were the claims untrue, but that they went against law enforcement practices of not naming the subjects of an investigation unless there is “probable cause to support an arrest or a charge.”

“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 statement was a betrayal of public trust,” Martin said. “It harms the person accused. It harms the investigation. And it harms the public’s confidence that law enforcement uses its authority for justice, not for personal or political ends.”

The general election is less than three weeks away on Nov. 3, with Bissen seeking reelection in a race against Maui County Council Vice Chair Yuki Lei Sugimura.

Pelletier’s attorney Eric Seitz told the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative via email on Tuesday that “Mr. Martin apparently is just another Mayor Bissen loyalist who is happy to join in on the attacks against Chief Pelletier.”

“Although we repeatedly have asked for and would like to have a proper meeting to try to resolve the unsubstantiated allegations against Chief Pelletier, we don’t want or need to engage in a tit for tat debate with the prosecutor or the county attorney or anyone else at this juncture about the Mayor’s role in all of this,” Seitz said. 

Martin rejected the view that his own response was politically motivated, pointing out that while he was appointed by the mayor, he had to be confirmed by the Maui County Council.

“I issued this statement for one reason — because it was the right thing to do,” Martin told the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative.

Pelletier claims one of the investigations targeting Bissen involves a felony. He declined to provide specifics during a news conference in Honolulu on Friday, saying he was “formally recused” from it. However, he said the other investigation was related to a lawsuit filed in April by Bissen’s former chief of staff, Leo Caires, who claimed he was fired for exposing fraudulent activity in the county.

Bissen and Frank Tam, the chair of the commission, each have denied the allegation that the mayor tried to influence the commission’s decisions about Pelletier. 

On Tuesday, Martin said in the press release that Bissen was not a target of the investigation Pelletier’ referenced that was related to Caires’ lawsuit. Caires claims he discovered Luana Mahi, the director of the Office of Economic Development, had used her position to funnel grants to family members.

Martin said that in August 2024, he learned about the Office of Economic Development allegations that had been presented to the Maui County Board of Ethics. He said the Department of Finance completed an investigation in October 2024 and asked the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney for guidance on Nov. 8, 2024.

Martin said his department reviewed the investigation and met with Finance Department staff later that month. The Department of Finance provided more documentation in December 2024, and in January 2025, the Prosecuting Attorney’s office “opened a criminal investigation into the possible misuse of County grant funds issued by OED,” Martin said.  

Martin said his department contacted the Hawai‘i Department of the Attorney General in January 2025 “as part of the normal deconfliction process,” and both agencies agreed to work together on the investigation, which brought in more staff and resources, including forensic accountants. 

He said that “in March 2026, after a substantial amount of work had been completed,” he asked the Attorney General’s Special Investigation and Prosecution Division “to take sole responsibility for all prosecutorial decision-making in the investigation.”

“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.”

He said his department has continued to provide law enforcement support to the state Special Investigation and Prosecution Division as requested. 

“We partnered with SIPD from the beginning, and later asked them to take over prosecutorial decisions, for one reason: to keep this investigation independent of County politics and to make sure that any findings and prosecutorial decisions stemming from it are beyond reproach,” Martin said. “That same principle is why I will not discuss the substance of the investigation, and why no one in law enforcement should.”

He pointed out that the investigation began before the lawsuit was filed on April 24, 2026, and before the county was served on June 5, 2026. 

When asked by the Hawaiʻi Journalism Initiative about Pelletier’s claim of an alleged felony investigation targeting Bissen, Martin said Tuesday that he was “not aware of any criminal criminal investigation involving Mayor Bissen as a target.”

The Department of the Attorney General declined to get into specifics when asked to comment on Martin’s timeline of events and the status of the investigation on Tuesday. 

Spokesperson Toni Schwartz said the department “will not make statements on the existence, non-existence or status of specific investigations or about possible pending cases.”

The Maui Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday afternoon from the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative.