B.J. Penn announces run for council seat despite ongoing legal issues

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - JULY 02: BJ Penn attends the UFC 276 event at T-Mobile Arena on July 02, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC) Embattled UFC Hall of Famer B.J. Penn is once again running for office, this time trying to get elected for the District 1 council seat. The 47-year-old retired fighter previously made a run at becoming Hawaii’s governor back in 2022 but came up short in his bid. Now he’s running for a different local office amid a long list of legal issues and arrests that have plagued Penn over the past few years. Back in June, a judge ruled that Penn was mentally fit to proceed to trial after he was arrested multiple times, with most of his legal issues tying back to his family after the former UFC champion was accused of allegedly assaulting his mother at her home in Hawaii. Penn was arrested five times in 2025 after he was initially taken into custody on two separate occasions for abuse of a family or household member. The allegations came from Penn’s mother Lorraine Shin, who was also granted a restraining order against her son that he eventually violated multiple times, which led to additional arrests. Shin accused Penn of “extreme psychological abuse” after he began claiming that members of his family had been “killed” and replaced by imposters. “I believe my son [B.J. Penn] is suffering from Capgras delusional syndrome (a psychiatric disorder in which a person holds a delusion that a friend, spouse, parent, other close family member has been replaced by an identical imposter),” Shin told police when filing for the restraining order. “He believes I’m an imposter who has killed his family to gain control of the family assets. “In the best interest for my safety, I ask the court for a six-month [temporary restraining order] and have my son ordered to get medical treatment or other source of therapy.” Penn is due back in court on Aug. 28 to continue dealing with the fallout from his numerous arrests, but he’s still free to run for office. The seat Penn seeks to win is currently held by three-term incumbent candidate Heather Kimball.