Police Chief hasn’t yet seen the official complaint against him Kaua’i Police Chief George Freitas, on paid leave since early August, thinks it’s time he finds out what he is being charged with. Freitas has been under investigation since September
Police Chief hasn’t yet seen the official complaint against him
Kaua’i Police Chief George Freitas, on paid leave since early August, thinks it’s time he finds out what he is being charged with.
Freitas has been under investigation since September 10.
A Honolulu Police Commission investigator, John Ko, is looking into a complaint lodged against Freitas with the Kaua’i Police Commission by two high-ranking departmental officers.
Ko is paid by the Honolulu Police Commission but the county of Kaua’i pays for his food, lodging and any overtime he accrues.
Ko has interviewed more than 100 members of the police department already.
According to published reports, the complaint alleges that Chief Freitas interfered in an internal investigation against another suspended Kaua’i police officer, Nelson Gabriel, who is awaiting a verdict after a trial in Fifth Circuit Court on 15 counts of sexual assault against a minor.
Gabriel was also recently charged with seven counts of harassment against an adult female co-worker at police dispatch.
It is the second set of charges, generated by an internal police investigation, that Freitas is accused of impeding.
Freitas has denied he interfered with anything.
“That investigation was completed on my watch,” he said two weeks ago.
But Freitas added that he hasn’t even seen the official complaint filed against him by two of his own employees.
Freitas said Thursday afternoon, outside of a Kaua’i County Council committee meeting, that he has only seen a vague outline of the allegations against him.
“They just gave me a summary (according to which) there are (allegations) of untruthfulness…traffic violations…poor judgment. But no specifics … Fire me if I have poor judgment,” Freitas said.
Freitas’s comments came only a few minutes after County Attorney Hartwell Blake had refused to release specifics of the complaints against Freitas to the council.
“This is a personnel matter … (I’m) precluded from discussing it in public,” Blake said.
Blake told the council what he had already told TGI Tuesday, that the investigation, begun on September 10, would be completed in early December.
“The investigation is ongoing. No conclusions have been drawn at this date.
When pushed by Hooser to at least tell the council members the specificity of the complaints — “I’d like to know what the original complaint was,” against the chief, Blake responded: “I’ve said all I can say.”
Freitas also claimed the Police Commission was breaking its own rules by stretching the investigation out over more than 90 days.
During the meeting, Council Chair Ron Kouchi suggested the matter could be discussed publicly if Freitas waived his right to confidentiality.
Afterward, Freitas said he would have to talk to his attorney about such a possibility.
Freitas is represented by former Hawai’i Attorney General Margery Bronster of Oahu.
At the end of the investigation, Freitas faces a variety of possibilities from re-instatement (with an apology) to termination.
Although Freitas won’t comment on the matter, it is also a strong eventual possibility that a lawsuit may be filed against the county for its handling of this matter.
Council Chair Kouchi said as much during the meeting.
“In the end …it’s just another black eye for the department. It’s (just a matter) of which eye gets hurt,” Kouchi said.
The 58-year-old Freitas has been a policeman since 1966. He served 29 years in Richmond, California before coming here as chief in October of 1995.
