A man accused of videotaping police officers conducting training in November 2006 was granted release on $400 bail, yesterday, in Fifth Circuit Court, pending his appeal. Darrel Lloyd Jarmusch was charged with resisting arrest, obstructing government operations and harassment stemming
A man accused of videotaping police officers conducting training in November 2006 was granted release on $400 bail, yesterday, in Fifth Circuit Court, pending his appeal.
Darrel Lloyd Jarmusch was charged with resisting arrest, obstructing government operations and harassment stemming from a Nov. 28, 2006, incident for which he is accused of filming several police conducting training exercises near the Lihu‘e Costco.
According to a police report, Jarmusch showed up, camera in hand, at a training and accused one of the officers of stopping cars randomly.
Police yesterday said they weren’t conducting any random traffic stops at the time, noting to do so they would have had to inform the public ahead of time, along with other protocols.
Police also said the reason they were able to pull a car over as part of the exercise was that the car’s plates had shown multiple traffic violations after the plates identifying marks were entered into a data base.
After Jarmusch was reportedly told to stop filming several times, officers arrested him and confiscated his film, according to police reports.
Arguing the incident had occurred while Jarmusch was on probation for another offense, Tracy Jean Murakami, prosecutor, filed a motion asking a judgment be entered from a 2001 case in which Jarmusch faced several weapons-related charges.
In the motion, Murakami asked for relief from an “illegal sentence” in the 2001 case, stating, “a conviction needs a sentence.”
Murakami asked Fifth Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe to enter a judgment on the previous case. An electronic records search indicated Jarmusch had been sentenced Feb. 20 to a deferred five years for count one, with an additional year for count four in the case. Watanabe said Jarmusch also had served 800 hours of community service, completed anger management, paid crime victim compensation fees and been given a convicted felon status.
Jarmusch’s attorney, John Cardona Calma, filed a memo in opposition to the prosecutor’s motion, supporting the Feb. 20 ruling.
Before granting the prosecutor’s motion, Watanabe said she was “at a loss” at all the time and effort going into the case by the prosecutor’s office and the county’s Victim Witness Program.
“Because of the continued energy that gets poured into this case … I will go ahead. Maybe this is a gray area. In order to bring closure to this case I will make it clear, I am re-sentencing (Jarmusch).”
The re-sentencing did not impose additional jail time.
During the hearing on the motion to release Jarmusch on bail pending his appeal, which prosecutors had asked to be set at $1,000, Jarmusch said he had no plans to flee and that he hoped to return home to Kilauea with his wife to help save his farm.
He also apologized.
“I made a stupid, prideful mistake when I filmed the police officers and what they were doing,” he said.
Watanabe said, “I’m glad to hear that.”
• Amanda C. Gregg, assistant editor/staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or agregg@kauaipubco.com
