WAILUA — Kapa’a resident Ryan Lindstedt looked forward to celebrating his 21st birthday with a handful of friends Jan. 22 with a bonfire on a beach by the Wailua Golf Course. The party turned into a nightmare. It swelled to
WAILUA — Kapa’a resident Ryan Lindstedt looked forward to celebrating his 21st
birthday with a handful of friends Jan. 22 with a bonfire on a beach by the
Wailua Golf Course.
The party turned into a nightmare.
It swelled to a
crowd police estimated between 400 to 500 young adults and some minors.
A
band performed and partygoers drank.
“It totally got out of hand,”
Lindstedt said. “It was crazy.”
While trying to break up the crowd with
other Kaua’i police officers, Sgt. Regina Ventura and officer Michael Contrades
were injured when bottles were thrown at them. They were treated for facial and
leg injuries and released.
Lindstedt, his mother, Michelle, 41, Timothy
Albao, 24, Stanford Aban, 26, and Timothy Baliaris, 21, all from Kapa’a, were
arrested at the beach during the early morning hours of Jan. 23 and charged
with disorderly conduct and failure to disperse.
It hasn’t been determined
whether any of those arrested threw the bottles, investigators said.
But
the police are apparently looking for two others whom they believe may be the
perpetrators.
On Feb. 29, the Lindstedts and at least one other person
pleaded not guilty to the charges during their arraignment in Lihu’e District
Court. The disposition of the other two cases wasn’t known.
On March 14,
Michelle Lindstedt and her son will stand trial on the charges.
Kaua’i
Deputy Prosecutor Attorney Derrick Chan said the matter is still being
investigated and declined further comment.
Michelle Lindstedt said she
arrived at the beach after the officers were injured and was arrested after she
told other officers she would not leave the beach until she found her
son.
Her son held the party at the beach because it had special meaning to
him, she said.
He and some of those arrested had fished and done
throw-netting along Wailua Beach for many years.
Ryan Lindstedt, his
mother said, thought the beach would be a fitting place to celebrate his 21st
birthday.
The party started at 11 a.m. with only a small group.
As
the evening wore on, more and more people showed up at the party, near the 17th
and 18th holes of the golf course.
“Ryan didn’t invite them. They had found
out by word of mouth,” Ryan’s mother said.
The crowd apparently became
boisterous after a band started performing and liquor was consumed.
A
handful of officers were deployed to the area to break up the crowd.
During that time, bottles were thrown at Ventura and Contrades, who
suffered injuries to the face and legs.
Michelle Lindstedt said she arrived
at the beach between 2:30 and 3 a.m. to pick up her son and noted that the
officers appeared agitated.
“The officers had been hit during the party,”
she said. “They were upset, and certainly they had a reason to be.”
The
crowd eventually dispersed at the urging of officers, she said, but officers
gave conflicting orders to the 15 or so remaining partygoers at the beach,
Lindstedt said.
Some officers said the partygoers weren’t going to leave
the scene until they had cleaned up beer cans and liquor bottles strewn along
beach area where the party took place, she said.
“They were told that if
they left, they would be cited for littering,” she said.
Other officers
told them that they had to leave immediately, although they were waiting for
trucks to take away the musical instruments and were helping to clear the beach
of debris, she said.
Lindstedt said she was arrested when she told officers
she would leave only if she left with her son.
“I told them they were
going to have to arrest me because I wasn’t going to leave my son,” Lindstedt
said.
Her son, she said, asked the officers not to arrest her.
“He
told them that it was his 21st birthday and asked ‘please don’t arrest my
mother,'” Lindstedt said. “That was when they put the handcuffs on
him.”
The others were subsequently arrested.
“We are not guilty of
throwing beer bottles, not guilty of inciting a party,” Lindstedt said.
“My son was just celebrating his birthday with a few people. It was others
who crashed the party.”
