2003-08-22 Police Commission Minutes

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HAWAII COUNTY POLICE COMMISSION REGULAR SESSION MINUTES AUGUST 22, 2003 WAIMEA CIVIC CENTER CALL TO ORDER Chair Hara called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. ROLL CALL Present: Horace S. Hara, Chair Dwight K. Manago, Vice Chair John M. Bertsch, Member Paul M. de Silva, Member James A. Frazier, Member Phoebe M. Lambeth, Member Betsy Mitchell, Member Walter Moe, Member Peter P. Muller, Member Also Present: Lawrence K. Mahuna, Chief Thomas Hickcox, Assistant Chief Charles Chair, Assistant Chief Henry Tavares, Captain Lincoln Ashida, Corporation Counsel Josie Pelayo, Secretary APPROVAL OF AGENDA Commissioner Frazier moved to add Correspondence 03 -79 onto the agenda as it responds to Correspondence 03 -66 and 03 -78, to amend Complaint HPC 02 -62 to read 02 -64, to defer Correspondence 03 -68 to October's meeting, and to remove presentation by the ARB. Commissioner de Silva moved to place Correspondence 03 -72 under New Business. Commissioner Lambeth seconded the motions, and it carried unanimously. STATEMENTS ON AGENDA ITEMS - Open to the public Lincoln Ashida stated that members of the public have the right to give a statement to the commission open session, before the public, or in closed session with only the commissioners and staff present. KATHLEEEN BRANCO came before the commission and spoke on Complaints HPC 03- 12A and 12B. She stated that she was there during the incident, and that her complaint is against the officer who was there. Her son, Duane Branco, was attacked by another boy. There was a scuffle, but by the time the officers arrived, the fight was over, and the boy that hit her son ran away. There was a lot of shouting and commotion, but the officer didn't need to use the pepper spray. The other police officers didn't use pepper spray and were all trying to calm things down. The officer then grabbed her son and shoved him to the pavement. This bodily force was not necessary. Her son had a hard time breathing and she asked the officer for a medic because her son has asthma, but he said, "No." She told another officer that her son was having trouble breathing, and he called a medic. The officer wouldn't let her son take his cuffs off to wash his face. The next day, her son's face was burnt. When she asked why her son was arrested, he told her that it was because he didn't listen to him. In the police report, he contradicted himself, by stating that her son made a bodily gesture. She had to ask for his badge number twice, but he said it so fast that she had to ask him to write it down. He then told her he didn't have any paper. He later wrote his name and