Prosecution witness John Saguibo took a break from a federal gambling and police bribery trial yesterday to testify in another federal court hearing against Hawaii Laborers Union official Oliver Kupau III.

Kupau is fighting a decision by the U.S. Department of Labor that disqualified him from a union leadership position because of a 2002 federal conviction for money laundering.

Kupau's lawyers and the Laborers International Union have asked U.S. Chief District Judge Helen Gillmor to exempt Kupau from a federal law that bars convicted felons from holding union office. The lawyers argue that Kupau is a rehabilitated man who is needed to take the helm of the 3,500-member Local 368 of the union.

Kupau, who goes by the nickname "Scuba," was elected business manager of the local in May but the U.S. Labor Department subsequently barred him from the job.

The disqualification law normally bans unions from employing certain convicted felons for 13 years. Kupau does not dispute that his conviction falls within that statute. He admitted paying a police officer $5,100 in 1998 to protect an illegal cockfighting business that he was running.

The officer who received the money, Earl Koanui, was working undercover, posing as a corrupt cop, as part of a much larger joint HPD-FBI investigation of illegal gambling operations in Honolulu.

Koanui testified briefly yesterday, confirming that Kupau paid him the cash on the premises of the Laborers Union building on Palama Street.

Kupau pleaded guilty in the case and Gillmor sentenced him in 2003 to four months in prison and three years of parole.

Saguibo took the stand yesterday to buttress the government's contention that Kupau is not rehabilitated.

Saguibo testified that in 2006 — well after Kupau was out of prison — Kupau asked him for help in obtaining two female "blue" chickens that are commonly used to breed cockfighters.

In a sworn statement, Saguibo said, "Kupau told me that he wanted two females to breed with his own chickens for fighting."

Kupau testified yesterday that he talked to Saguibo about the chickens at someone else's request and denied that he has any involvement in the illegal sport.

"I don't do that any more," Kupau said.

He admitted dropping off two "chicken boxes" used to transport fighting fowl at the Laborers training building.

But Saguibo never delivered the birds because he was busted by the FBI in another investigation of cockfighting and police corruption. He pleaded guilty to gambling and to separate narcotics charges and is now a government witness.

One of the witnesses in yesterday's hearing who spoke up for Kupau was Thomas Cestare, head of the U.S. National Labor Relations Board office here.

The NLRB resolves disputes between organized labor and employers in the private sector. It is not part of the U.S. Labor Department.

Cestare said he was not testifying as a government official. He said he has known Kupau since 1989 and had found him to be a "reasonable man" with an ability to resolve disputes "in an amiable way."

Cestare said Kupau "repeatedly demonstrated to me that he was trustworthy."