‘Wonder Blunder’ Guilty Plea Stands

Dennis Oda / The Star-Advertiser via AP, File – Marc Hubbard
Oct. 4, 2016, file photo, North Carolina concert promoter Marc Hubbard walks to federal court in Honolulu.

A judge is not allowing a North Carolina man to take back his guilty plea to scamming the University of Hawaii out of $200,000 for a Stevie Wonder concert that never happened. 

U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi ruled Monday on Marc Hubbard’s request to withdraw his 2016 guilty plea, where he admitted to lying about his ability to secure Wonder for a fundraising concert.

She says Hubbard doesn’t meet any of the exemptions in law for withdrawing a guilty plea.

Hubbard says he was coerced into pleading guilty because he was afraid prosecutors would reveal his cooperation against East Coast mobsters.

Prosecutors deny he was coerced and say his cooperation was useless. Hubbard is already serving more than six years for a concert investment scam in Pennsylvania.