A Kaua’i man now in prison on O’ahu has filed suit against officers of the Kaua’i Police Department, Honolulu Magazine, and The Garden Island. Waldorf Roy Wilson, II, alleges he is a victim of defamation, slander and libel and was
A Kaua’i man now in prison on O’ahu has filed suit against officers of the Kaua’i Police Department, Honolulu Magazine, and The Garden Island.
Waldorf Roy Wilson, II, alleges he is a victim of defamation, slander and libel and was unlawfully imprisoned as a suspect in the case of two deadly attacks on women on Kaua’i in 2000.
In the suit, Wilson claims that KPD officers have told news reporters that he was the “Kauai serial killer.”
According to the law suit, Wilson’s parole was transferred to Kaua’i in January 2000.
In April 2000, the County of Kaua’i Police Department found the body of Lisa Bissell, 38, near Polihale State Park. Another woman had been found beaten and stabbed in the yard of a Kekaha home in May 2000 , but she survived. In August 2000, the body of Daren Singer 43, of Maui, was found near Pakala Point.
On or about Sept. 12, 2000, Wilson claims in the law suit, the Kauai Police Department placed him under surveillance in relation to the attacks.
Wilson claims he was named as the suspect of a police investigation into the attacks in a KHNL Channel 8 news broadcast aired on Sept. 13, 2000, where his photograph and name were shown on the air. The complaint alleges that the KPD furnished the information.
In the Aug. 2001 edition of Honolulu Magazine a detailed description of the alleged “Kauai serial killer” was published, the lawsuit claims, and referred to information about Wilson broadcast on the earlier News 8 report.
An article about a suspect in the killings appeared in The Garden Island, but didn’t name the suspect.
Wilson’s lawsuit was filed Sept. 11 in Fifth Circuit Court in Lihu’e, but hasn’t been served on The Garden Island.
Wilson was held for 16 years in state prison on O’ahu prior to being released on parole on Jan. 5, 1999. He went back to prison due to a parole violation, and was again paroled on Feb. 28, 2002. Subsequently, he’s again been arrested for a parole violation in connection with failing a polygraph test, according to the Hawaii Paroling Authority, and is again in prison.
Wilson also claims in the suit that KPD officers forced him to take a polygraph test, in which according to the complaint, he denied any knowledge of or involvement in the attacks.
The KPD “strongly pressured” members of the Hawaii Paroling Authority to hold the plaintiff on “very technical parole violations” and that the KPD wanted Wilson held as the prime suspect for the attacks, according to the complaint.
County Attorney Hartwell Blake provided no comment on the suit when called Monday afternoon.
Wilson asserts that no credible evidence links him to the attacks, that DNA samples taken to link him to the attacks were inconclusive when tested, and that the surviving victim failed pick out Wilson as her attacker in a police line-up held by the Honolulu Police Department late in 2000.
Staff Writer Kendyce Manguchei can be reached at kmanguchei@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 252).
