Businessman Sentenced to 90 Days in Battery Case

Oxnard land speculator Donald T. Kojima on Tuesday asked a judge for leniency in his felony battery case, citing his role as an undercover operative in an unsuccessful public corruption probe aimed at a former Oxnard city councilman.

Kojima was sentenced to 90 days in jail, even though his lawyer had asked for probation.

“He did a public service at great personal risk with no reward whatsoever,” defense attorney Carl A. (Tony) Capozzola told acting Superior Court Judge Steven Hintz.

Kojima pleaded guilty in October to felony battery in exchange for two other felony counts being dropped. Hintz did not comment on Capozzola’s plea before sentencing Kojima, who must report to County Jail May 1.

Hintz also rejected a deal that would have let Kojima build recreational facilities in Oxnard in lieu of the 90-day jail sentence, which Deputy Dist. Atty. Maeve Fox argued was too lenient. Fox argued for a sentence of at least 120 days in jail, citing the injuries sustained by the victim.

The conviction carried a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

Kojima admitted punching his former live-in girlfriend in the face in 1994, fracturing her cheekbone. But Kojima has maintained since his arrest that the Ventura County district attorney’s office was overzealous in prosecuting him because of the failure of the undercover investigation.

Kojima has also been embroiled in a dispute with the city of Oxnard, which purchased a 41-acre plot for $5.32 million from the speculator last year. Oxnard officials say Kojima had initially agreed to trade the parcel for another piece of land he owns nearby, where the city wants to build low-cost housing. But Kojima has since threatened to back out of the land-swap deal, throwing a wrench into the city’s plans.

Lynell Dubowy, the woman Kojima hit and a former business associate, told The Times in October that Kojima complained to Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury that then-Councilman Michael Plisky was seeking a $30,000 payment in exchange for favorable votes on the land deal in 1993. At the time, Plisky was an outspoken critic of the Kojima deal.

Plisky, who did not seek reelection to the Oxnard City Council in 1994 and instead won a seat on the Oxnard Harbor District, strongly denied that he ever did anything to warrant a criminal investigation. Instead, he said the investigation was started at Kojima’s insistence and led nowhere.

Dubowy said she was present when D.A. investigators hid a tape recorder on Kojima before he attended a meeting to discuss the land-swap deal.

The meeting yielded nothing incriminating against Plisky and the investigation was dropped shortly afterward, Dubowy said. She did not return telephone calls Tuesday seeking comment.

Plisky said he recalled a meeting with Kojima at the coffee shop in the Oxnard Hilton Hotel to discuss the project. But Plisky said he spent most of the meeting chastising Kojima for accusing him of wrongdoing.

Regardless of the outcome, Capozzola said Kojima’s service as an undercover operative should be considered. “He was used as a pawn and did a civic duty for what he thought was justice,” Capozzola said outside the courtroom Tuesday. “It would have been interesting to know if the D.A. would have prosecuted this case if the investigation had not failed.”

Bradbury did not return a telephone call seeking comment.