LIHU‘E — Drugs and drug-related violent crime continue to be the primary public safety concern on Kaua‘i. There were countless cases of young and old residents in court to say they are good people who got messed up on methamphetamine
LIHU‘E — Drugs and drug-related violent crime continue to be the primary public safety concern on Kaua‘i. There were countless cases of young and old residents in court to say they are good people who got messed up on methamphetamine and committed crimes to feed their addiction.
Drugs were suspected to be associated with robberies and violence in the late night hours in the Anchor Cove area of Nawiliwili. On July 15, a 33-year-old employee of Pride of America cruise ship was struck with a beer bottle during a brawl that resulted in a dislocated jaw and several missing teeth.
“Prescription Drug abuse wreaked havoc on our community throughout 2011,” said County Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho. “This alarming trend fueled violent crime and placed some of the most vulnerable members of our community, the elderly and the ill, at higher risk for becoming victims of home invasions and robberies.”
In the coming year, Iseri-Carvalho said, the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney would continue to bolster efforts to reverse this trend through our strategic enforcement efforts and community-based initiatives.
The area has had more than 40 investigations by the KPD and resulted in the removal of the Pine Tree Inn, a wooden structure in a tree which served as a congregation point for locals and visitors. At night it was a hangout for trouble, according to KPD, and it was dismantled amid protests from many who valued it as a cultural landmark.
Waimea tragedy, bank heist
The tragedy in Waimea Valley Dec. 2 will leave a lasting impact on the island and especially on the Westside communities.
Only time will reveal the details of how 21-year-old Shendon Chandler-Taniguchi could suddenly snap and stab three neighbors, killing 68-year-old Edita Padamada, wounding James Rick, 63, Julie Bergseid, 50, and his own grandfather, 83 year-old Anthony Chandler.
The death of the suspect made understanding the reasons for the crime more difficult without a case to prosecute.
More information should come to light with the results of the investigation of the first shooting of a suspect by a KPD officer since 2005.
David Verden Williams, Jr. was charged with the first bank robbery on Kaua‘i in years when he held up the American Savings Bank in Lihu‘e Sept. 12. The 35 year-old Sacramento, Calif. native and a Hawai‘i resident for nearly 10 years was captured by KPD officers the following day at St. Regis Princeville Resort.
FBI agents were on Kaua‘i soon after to transfer Williams to an O‘ahu facility where he is awaiting trial in federal court.
In what could be called a bank robbery, two area men stole an ATM machine from Anchor Cove Shopping Center the early morning hours of Sept. 26.
Joseph Rapozo III, age 26, of Anahola and Alvin Isobe, 48, of Kapa‘a were arrested and charged with seven counts including first-degree theft and damages. They each have a Feb. 12 trial date.
Assaults, money scams
There were several sexual assault cases in 2011, and most recently John Palanca Cruzada who pleased no-contest for repeatedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 2007. The 57-year-old Hanama‘ulu resident received the maximum 18 months in jail following a five-year probation plea deal Sept. 13 in Fifth Circuit Court.
The Steven and April Schaefer case came to an end in November, leaving many wondering how the couple was not able to maneuver another continuance or an appeal. The couple must pay $33,876.57 in restitution to the 19 families they swindled out of money in a scheme that left many losing their homes.
The Schaefers were sentenced Nov. 9 to a year in jail for scheming Kaua‘i couples out of money more than 13 years earlier in a District Court case that went all the way to the Hawaiian Supreme Court.
After a 14-day stay order the case ended Nov. 23, when District Judge Laurel Loo denied a request to postpone the prison sentence as another federal appeal is in the works. She ordered the couple to report to Kaua‘i Community Correctional Center in two days to start their sentence.
The attempted murder case of Nicole Danielle Gonsalves concluded in October with a reduced plea deal to felony assault. The 26 year-old Koloa woman allegedly stabbed her ex-boyfriend in the leg and assaulted his female companion.
The misdemeanor charge could bring a one-year maximum sentence. However, the court could impose extended sentencing and Gonsalves faces a possible 31 years when she appears in court again on Jan. 19.
In a similar rage incident, a Kapa‘a woman who tried to run over her boyfriend in 2010 was sentenced to 18 months for second-degree attempted murder in October. The 36-year-old drove her car off the road into her then-boyfriend and pinned him between against a barbed wired fence but not seriously injuring or killing him — which Judge Randal Valenciano said was the intent. She pleaded no contest to the incident on July 7.
It was an emotional courtroom on Oct. 13 when New Jersey resident Wayne D. Siegel returned to Kaua‘i to face sentencing for the June 1, 2010, death of Gloria Robles Agcaoili, 70, who was a passenger in a car driven by her son, James Agcaoili, 39, when it collided with Siegel’s vehicle after he apparently fainted at the wheel.
The 48 year-old visitor underwent extensive tests and no substance or medical condition could be determined that caused the fainting spell. That would have made sentencing easier, said Valenciano, and that in this case will leave no one feeling good about the outcome.
Siegel was sentenced to one-year probation and ordered to pay nearly $11,000 in restitution to the family.
Hawaiians, brush fire
Iseri-Carvalho initiated her P.O.H.A.K.U. (Productive Optimism Helps All Kaua‘i Unite) program in September. It is a culturally based education and community service and restitution alternative to a conviction and incarceration or probation.
The goal of the program is to involve defendants in the community with residents and organization in a way that benefits the victim and themselves. Eligible participants accept responsibility for their offense, offer restitution and take classes on cultural values, in addition to performing community service with the community that was offended.
With new state and federal laws addressing the recognition of Native Hawaiians’ rights to self-determination, there have been several cases in Fifth Circuit Court regarding controversial uses of special identification cards and moving violations.
Proponents argue that the various Native Hawaiian registrations, vehicle tags and driver’s licenses and permits for businesses and activities are compliant with Hawaiian or U.S. laws. The KPD and the Office of Prosecuting Attorney have fought the identification cards in court as a hazard to enforcing statutes and ordinances.
More than 50 members of the Kaua‘i Fire Department on Aug. 17, with the help of many area volunteers with garden hoses, water trucks and anything they could find, doused a raging 50-acre Koloa brush fire that nearly destroyed 100 homes on Kipuka Street in the Weliweli tract of Po‘ipu. The 3 1/2 hour fire caused $950,000 in damages destroying a house and a guest structure, and seriously damaged six others, with fortunately no injuries or deaths.
Gov., HOPE, KPD
On the state level, Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed a bill in July to create a task force that will look into whether a new Department of the Sheriff is needed or feasible.
The bill was enacted because of a concern that the Department of Public Safety should not use its limited resources to maintain the function of the Sheriff’s Division.
Fifth Circuit Court initiated Hawai‘i Opportunity Probation with Enforcement program this summer. The HOPE probationers are first-time sex offenders, or domestic violence and drug offenders and if eligible are given a last chance and if test positive for drugs or violate the probation will automatically go to jail.
KPD announced this year that preliminary work is complete and they are ready to begin a three-year process of national accreditation to set department standards and policies of law enforcement agencies around the country.
Anahola murder
A grand jury in the 5th Circuit Court of the state of Hawai‘i indicted on Jan. 19 Vicente Kotekapika Hilario on five charges: murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, retaliating against a witness, intimidating a witness and bribery of a witness.
On Dec. 17, 2010, Kapa‘a resident Aureo Moore, 34, was shot and killed in the middle of a public road in broad daylight near Anahola Beach Park. Hilario was arrested a few hours later,
After many delays, Hilario’s trial is supposed to begin sometime in the early months of 2012.
