With 12 years in the prosecuting attorney’s office under his belt and behind him, Craig De Costa has seen his priorities change and is excited to work in new areas of the law, he said in an interview before he
With 12 years in the prosecuting attorney’s office under his belt and behind him, Craig De Costa has seen his priorities change and is excited to work in new areas of the law, he said in an interview before he finished his term at November’s end.
“It’s been a very good experience, I feel like I’ve served the community where I grew up,” he said of his time as a county employee.
“I’ve seen a lot of improvement over the last 12 years. We’ve worked to protect the public and seek justice, and I think we’ve done the best we could with what we had.”
De Costa — who started as an intern when he was in law school, later becoming a “line deputy,” then prosecutor Michael Soong’s top deputy, then finally the county’s elected top cop — said he handled “everything from traffic violations to murders.”
He estimated he worked on 400 to 600 felony cases — including three murder trials in three months in the spring of 2006 — and thousands of misdemeanors.
“After 12 years, I’ve done everything I’m going to do in this office,” he said when asked why he chose to not seek another term in office, leaving the position to be filled by former colleague Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, who ran unopposed. “I was not going to do much as an attorney, but more as an administrator. That’s not where my passion lies.”
Furthermore, De Costa married last year and said operating his own practice rather than working for the taxpayers will provide him greater flexibility to spend time with his family as his priorities change.
De Costa said this week the time off between his former career and his future one has been “relaxing,” but lamented he had found himself in court on the first day of his de facto retirement thanks to a jury duty summons, the first evidence of the change in status from public servant to private citizen.
He expects that his firm will expand from the criminal arena to deal with cases concerning business, civil suits, labor negotiations, wills and trusts. He said he would be working in his Kapahi home this month, and hoped to move into a Lihu‘e office early next year.
After taking care of the paperwork required to start a law practice — opening bank accounts and arranging for liability insurance, among other tasks — De Costa will be ready to accept work starting next week and will be available for meetings at the 5th Circuit Courthouse in Lihu‘e, he said.
He will be available for private retainer and will also take court-appointed cases, noting that he will avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest by refusing any criminal case in which the incident took place during his time as prosecutor, even if charges had not yet been filed at that point.
Those interested in retaining De Costa’s services can reach him at 634-3300.
• Michael Levine, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or via e-mail at mlevine@kauaipubco.com
