B.J. Penn Runs for Local Office in Hawaii Amid Five 2025 Arrests

B.J. Penn is running for office again. The 47-year-old UFC Hall of Famer is seeking Hawaii's District 1 council seat, currently held by three-term incumbent Heather Kimball, four years after his failed 2022 bid to become the state's governor.

This time the campaign lands against a much heavier backdrop. Penn was arrested five times in 2025, most of the incidents tied to his own family. He's due back in court on Aug. 28 to keep working through the fallout, and in June a judge ruled him mentally fit to stand trial. None of that legally bars him from running.

The Charges Behind the Campaign

The initial arrests came on two separate occasions for abuse of a family or household member. The allegations trace back to Penn's mother, Lorraine Shin, who accused him of assaulting her at her home in Hawaii and was later granted a restraining order. Penn violated that order multiple times, which triggered the additional arrests that stacked up over the year.

Shin's account is grim. In her filing she said she believes Penn is suffering from Capgras delusional syndrome, a psychiatric condition in which a person becomes convinced a close relative has been replaced by an identical imposter. According to Shin, Penn claimed members of his family had been killed and swapped out, and that she herself was an imposter who had taken control of the family's assets. She asked the court for a six-month temporary restraining order and requested that her son be ordered into treatment or therapy.

A Fighter Who Actually Mattered

It's a hard read for anyone who watched Penn in his prime. He's one of only a handful of fighters to hold UFC belts in two divisions, and his run at lightweight and welterweight in the 2000s made him one of the most talented fighters of his era. The induction into the Hall of Fame wasn't a courtesy.

The campaign now sits alongside a legal calendar that isn't finished. Penn remains free to seek the seat, and voters in District 1 will weigh a candidate whose recent headlines have almost nothing to do with policy. Whatever happens on Aug. 28, the ballot question and the courtroom one are running on parallel tracks.