Rebecca, who goes by “Becky,” has been serving as Kauai’s Prosecuting Attorney for the past two years following a County Special Election. She seeks reelection with the hope of continuing to protect Kauai’s most vulnerable and devote resources to prevention and early intervention.
During the past two years, Becky has built and maintained an experienced team of deputy prosecutors from diverse backgrounds. She also has expanded the scope of her Life’s Choices Kauai division by securing grant funding to provide re-entry services. Becky has also invested energy in developing diversion programs to divert low-level offenders from the criminal justice system.
Prior to that, she served as a Deputy Prosecutor for 11 years and as the second deputy.
As second deputy, Becky has been a supervisor. She reviews plea offers, assists in hiring decisions, manages office projects and policies and handles day to day office issues. In addition to her managerial duties, Becky has maintained a full caseload, most recently handling adult sex assault cases.
Throughout her time at the office, she has been assigned to District, Family and Circuit Court. She has handled every type of case and done numerous bench and jury trials. Becky has handled multiple murder cases and heinous sexual assault cases. She has worked first hand with survivors and trauma victims. To see press coverage of Becky’s cases, click here.
She has attended numerous in person and on-line trainings by the National District Attorneys Association and the Hawaii State Bar Association, including focused trainings on prosecution of sexual assault offenses, trial strategy, office management and racial equity.
Throughout her time at the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Becky has been involved in various leadership positions on Kauai and in the State. Some of the leadership roles she has held include:
- Completion of the Hawaii State Bar Association Leadership Institute in 2014
- President of the Rotary Club of Kauai from 2016-2017
- President of the Kauai Bar Association in 2018
- Completion of the Stanford Graduate School of Business program Prosecutor Leaders of Now in 2020
- Participation in pilot Roots of Empathy Program at Kapaa Middle School 2020
Although Becky sees herself as a career prosecutor, she believes everyone deserves to be treated with compassion and dignity. Becky was the first person in her family to go to law school. She attended Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon after graduating from Portland State University with a degree in Sociology and a minor in Criminal Justice.
After high school, Becky dealt with substance abuse issues and went to inpatient treatment. This experience helped her understand that addiction is not a moral issue, but a medical one.
Following the birth of her first son and the sudden death of her mother from pancreatic cancer, Becky struggled with debilitating depression. She sought and continues to seek medical intervention and therapy. Those interventions in her own life led to a better personal understanding of the pervasiveness and stigma associated with seeking help for those issues.
Becky says, “I want to be Kauai’s Prosecutor first and foremost because I want to be of service to my community, the community where I plan to raise my children. My personal experiences and professional experience make me the best person for the job. Although there are clearly individuals who pose a threat to public safety that need to be separated from our community, many of the individuals I have seen in my 11 years as a deputy prosecutor struggle with mental health and/or substance abuse issues. Our current system has failed to adequately address these realities.”
See more of Becky’s Priorities as Prosecutor here.
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