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I’m very disappointed in people I know or have respected by reputation for appealing to a judge against prison time for the blatant tax cheat Albert Hee.

That list includes former State Supreme Court justice James Duffy Jr., former state lawmaker Heather Giugni, current state Sen. Brickwood Galuteria (who has his own residency problems), former Public Utilities Commission chair Hermina Morita, retired Vice Adm. Robert Kihune, executive director Jeff Gilbreath of Hawaii Community Assets, and Alvin Parker, principal of Ka Waihona Charter School, who should be impressing his students with honesty rather than excusing fraud and misuse of public money.

Fortunately, their pleas went nowhere and Hee got the federally-suggested incarceration time for his kind of felony — 46 months, just short of four years.

It’s nice to stand by your friends and point out their good sides. But when they’ve done really bad things — and Hee certainly qualifies there — you should add that doing the crime deserves serving the full time.

Why would any of the people I’ve named here suggest otherwise?

When an auditor asked Hee about a tax deduction for a $6,000 consulting fee he paid to masseuse Diane Doll, Hee said, “You never know where you are going to get information about the competition from.”

Hee paid from public funds the membership fee at Waialae Country Club for supporter and business associate Kihune, so maybe that’s Kihune’s excuse for his letter of support.

People such as charter school principal Parker seem to be advising tolerance that Hee’s company, Waimana Enterprises, failed to file taxes for 1997 to 2005. What’s that say to his Nanakuli youngsters?

Hee’s enterprises paid $96,000 so that Hee could receive two-hour massages twice a week; $119,909 for personal expenses, including family trips to Disney World, Tahiti, France, and Switzerland and a four-day family vacation at the Mauna Lani resort; $736,900 for college tuition and housing expenses for Hee’s three children; $1.3 million for a home in Santa Clara, California, for his children’s use as college housing; and $1,676,685 in wages and fringe benefits for his wife and three children.

The prosecutor noted that Hee showed “no remorse and absolutely no acceptance of responsibility.” He blamed his accountants.

So I ask all those letters-of-support writers named above what that says to taxpayers and good citizens?

Judge Susan Mollway was unimpressed. She said in court that Hee’s demeanor during his trial “seemed to be minimizing the seriousness of what he had done.”

The federal guidelines for sentencing in the Hee case called for between 41 and 51 months in prison, and Mollway went for 46 — the halfway point.

Again, pointing out Hee’s good parts (husband, father) is perfectly okay and I’d do the same for a friend. But as I read all those letters I did not find passages saying “however, he stole public money for personal enrichment and therefore he does deserve considerable prison time. Give it to him, please.”

That’s what was missing and disappointed me.