Lawsuit alleges superiors damaged his reputation A Kaua’i County Police officer is suing the Police Department and the county in connection with an alleged romantic relationship between his wife and another officer. Officer Royland Abuan, through his attorney, also named
Lawsuit alleges superiors damaged his reputation
A Kaua’i County Police officer is suing the Police Department and the county in connection with an alleged romantic relationship between his wife and another officer.
Officer Royland Abuan, through his attorney, also named his district commander, Lt. Alvin Seto, and Sgt. Patrick Balbarino as defendants in his lawsuit.
Abuan, who filed the legal action Oct. 30 in Fifth Circuit Court in Lihu’e, is seeking special damages, general damages and punitive damages, all to be proven at trial.
County attorney Hartwell Blake, contacted Monday about the case, had little comment on the case.
“It is fraught with personnel issues and we haven’t done an investigation yet,” Blake said.
Abuan alleges in his lawsuit that Balbarino was involved in a romantic relationship with Abuan’s wife, Susan, and that he confronted Balbarino in May about it.
Not long after that confrontation, Abuan alleged, he was called in by a sergeant who told him “higher ups” were worried about the rumored relationship. Abuan said he eventually took a night off in August after his wife called and discussed her relationship problems with another sergeant.
Abuan said in his lawsuit that he did not want his superiors concerned that his personal situation would affect his work performance.
The next day, Aug. 5, Abuan said that at police headquarters he spoke to several colleagues about temporary housing, and that later that evening he decided to go to a movie at Kukui Grove Cinema.
After the movie, Abuan drove back to Hanapepe, where he saw several officers parked at a local restaurant. He stopped to say hello and was told there was an all-points bulletin out for him, which warned that “he was suicidal.”
Abuan said Seto authorized the APB after Balbarino told Seto that the “plaintiff was suicidal …. At the time Lt. Seto knew or should have known that Sgt. Balbarino was involved with the plaintiff’s wife,” the lawsuit alleges.
On Aug. 6, the lawsuit claims, “Lt. Seto met the Plaintiff …Seto admitted he had authorized the APB because of the plaintiff’s bad marriage and absence from his family. Plaintiff was upset because his personal life was no one’s business and there was no basis for issuing the APB. Lt. Seto agreed the plaintiff was neither homicidal nor suicidal.”
The next day, according to the lawsuit, Abuan met with then-police chief George Freitas (now on paid leave as complaints against him by fellow officers are investigated) and then-deputy (now acting) chief Wilfred Ihu. According to the lawsuit, Ihu told Seto he “had jumped the gun when he authorized the APB. The chief acknowledged Seto’s error, and told the plaintiff he had neither witnessed nor heard any complaints regarding his work performance.”
Abuan told his superiors that the situation with his wife was personal. The lawsuit claims the chief and the deputy chief agreed that the Abuan’s personal life “was a private matter that should not be aired at the workplace.”
But, according to Abuan’s lawsuit, Seto authorized a second APB on Aug. 12, again after Balbarino allegedly said “he had received a call from plaintiff’s wife who told him the plaintiff said he wanted to kill himself.”
Because of these incidents, Abuan is alleging defamation.
Abuan said the defamatory statements about him (and his mental state) were published in the APBs.
The statements “constitute slander per se. Defendants defamatory actions have caused damage to plaintiff’s reputation, career, livelihood and occupation, and have subjected him to disgrace, ridicule and/or contempt,” the lawsuit contends.
Abuan is also claiming invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violation of due process under the 14th Amendment.
There is no court date yet for Abuan’s lawsuit.
Abuan’s attorney, Richard Wilson of Honolulu, was unavailable for comment.
Seto also couldn’t be reached Monday.
Wilson is the attorney who represented Lisa Fisher, a former Kaua’i County Police officer who alleged she was sexually harassed by Police Department supervisors in 1997.
Fisher filed a sexual harassment complaint and was given a desk job. Last year, the county paid her $425,000 to settle her case, the highest employee-related settlement in the county’s history.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
