Honolulu city worker pleads guilty to bribery, faces deportation to PH

Jocelyn Godoy is among five Honolulu permitting office workers to plead guilty to bribery, including two other Filipinos. SCREENGRAB

A 60-year-old Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting employee could be imprisoned and get deported to the Philippines for taking a bribe. She is among three Filipino workers in the department prosecuted for receiving pay-offs.

Jocelyn Godoy on May 17 pleaded guilty in federal court to accepting bribes from an architect. The prosecutor said the architect gave Godoy $820.25 for sharing digital files of building plans so he wouldn’t have to make a trip to the county’s office for hard copies, reported Civil Beat.

Jocelyn Godoy. FACEBOOK

Godoy pleaded guilty to one count of honest services wire fraud. Between September 2019 and November 2020, she used her position in DPP’s Data Access and Imaging Branch to dole out favors in exchange for gifts, the prosecution said.

Godoy will be sentenced Aug. 30 and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine, as well as restitution. Godoy said she has lived in the US since 1971 and was told that deportation was “a real possibility.”

Godoy is among five permitting office workers to plead guilty to bribery, including two other Filipinos. Jennie Javonillo admitted taking over $63,000 in bribes over the course of a decadeand is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence. Jason Dadez, who took at least $9,900 from solar contractors, got an 18-month sentence.