The Kaua’i County Police Commission is expected to finally vote Friday on the professional future of police chief George Freitas. Freitas, on paid leave since the end of August while complaints against him by two high-ranking officers were investigated, said
The Kaua’i County Police Commission is expected to finally vote Friday on the professional future of police chief George Freitas.
Freitas, on paid leave since the end of August while complaints against him by two high-ranking officers were investigated, said Tuesday he would be at tomorrow’s 9:30 a.m. commission meeting at Historic County Building.
Freitas said he would be accompanied by his attorney, Margaret Bronster of Oahu. Bronster is a former state attorney general.
Freitas has been the subject of a department-wide investigation conducted by John Ko, a Honolulu Police Commission investigator hired by the Kaua’i commission, since Sept. 10.
Sources said Ko’s final report was to be submitted Tuesday to the Kaua’i County Police Commission.
The commission’s agenda calls for a discussion of the Freitas matter and a decision at the specially called meeting.
But at least the discussion, if not the voting, is likely to be conducted in an executive session closed to the public. Freitas said he will request that the proceedings be conducted in public.
Personnel issues are usually discussed in executive session to protect the employee in question, but the suspended-with-pay chief has said repeatedly he would prefer the proceedings take place in the open.
County attorney Hartwell Blake was noncommital about the commission going public.
“Not knowing what type of vote will be taken, or even if a vote will be taken, I cannot predict what will be released to the public Friday,” Blake said.
Blake has repeatedly said that personnel matters should not be discussed in the news media.
While conducting his nearly three-month investigation, Ko has interviewed more than 100 members of the Police Department, according to official sources.
The complaints against Freitas revolve around his alleged interference in an internal department investigation of harassment complaints against a suspended officer, Nelson Gabriel, while Gabriel was working in dispatch.
Gabriel’s alleged harassment victim is an adult female co- worker.
Gabriel was later charged with seven misdemeanor harassment charges stemming from the investigation Freitas was accused of disrupting.
Freitas has denied the charges against him while alleging he had never seen the specific complaints filed against him.
The commission has several options it can recommend to Mayor Maryanne Kusaka, ranging from Freitas being fired, suspended or warned, to reinstating him to active duty.
Masuoka had said in late-September at the trial’s conclusion that he hoped to render his verdict on or around Nov. 1. But no verdict was expected before Thanksgiving, according to the Kaua’i County prosecuting attorney’s office.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
