2004-08-13 Police Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Regular Session Minutes August 13, 2004 Page 2 He was in his police subsidized vehicle when he first observed Mr. Chun at the intersection of Kilauea Avenue and Puainako Street. His right tires were off the roadway and over the white line. Mr. Chun made a wide left turn and his right side tires ran over the reflectors on the roadway. He made a traffic stop and smelled alcohol on Mr. Chun's breath. Mr. Chun was given a sobriety test and failed. He arrested Mr. Chun for driving under the influence. His procedure is to make a copy of the tape for the prosecutor prior to turning it into evidence. He only made one copy. He took the original out of evidence when he went to court. For a while he went to court about every month, so he held onto the tape. He believes he was in error, and should have turned the tape in after every court date. ROBERT HICKCOX, HPC 04 -29: This case involved information they received about an individual coming in from the mainland with heroin. When they first made the case and the arrest, they contacted DEA who took all their evidence and reports. DEA has not returned all the evidence. The case was sent to the federal prosecutor who decided not to prosecute the case. It is unusual for the case to be declined. They are now compiling all the information for the state prosecutors, and this is an ongoing case. It might have taken long because of miscommunication between the federal prosecutor and the US Attorney's office. They had about five officers there. Three individuals were arrested. A female party had heroin in her handbag. Another person had heroin in a cavity of his person. X -rays found containers in one of the male parties. DEA took all the evidence. The US Attorney told them that it would be a federal prosecution. THEODORE GASPAR, HPC 04 -29: He was the person who initially received the information about three parties. He confirmed that one of the persons was on the flight. That was his whole involvement. He was not involved in the arrest. He was only the intermediary. The parties were arrested. Commissioner de Silva thought it was dangerous for the commission to ask questions and to make conclusions on an ongoing case. REUBEN CHUN, HPC 04 -26: The bulk of what he has to say is in the documents he submitted. Officer Gali followed him in an unmarked car from the shopping center. They went to court numerous times and it has not yet been settled. He is concerned about missing times on the tape. He was not deficient in his driving. He has doubts about the credibility of the videotape itself. The officer violated the procedure for handling evidence. He believes it was in 2002 when he was reviewing the transcripts that he noticed there was an index counter discrepancy. Around May of this year he found that the tape was not in the evidence. Commissioner de Silva stated that it was his understanding that if any charges are filed against a police officer; it has to be done within one year of the incident.