2009-08-14 Police Commission Minutes

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Hawaii County Police Commission Regular Session Minutes August 14, 2009 Page 7 blame. He felt it was the mother who made the call because the person said he was going to kill her husband and daughter and named both of them. The person was whispering, so the employee couldn't tell if it was male or female. PAUL SULLA (Complaint HPC 09 -22) stated that his complaint involves a traffic stop. He was riding in a car. His son was driving, and he was speeding. The officer said he smelled something. He did a sobriety test. The officer asked to search him. He had rolling paper and a speck of green stuff. He had showed him his marijuana card earlier which had expired. He tried to explain that he was a patient and used marijuana. The voters passed the initiative. They are not even talking about a joint; it was a speck. He ignored his marijuana card. As a police officer he should have known that that spec would not hold up as evidence. He was put in jail for 2 -3 hours. The papers carried it prominently. He was just a passenger in an automobile. He can't understand how this officer could do this. He wants to hear from the officer, and he should be reprimanded. DEVAKI KLARE (Complaint HPC 09 -22) distributed and then read a code of ethics for police officers. Stated that the police are going after people and harassing them. They have attitude, especially with people who have the herb. Commissioner Behenna asked Ms. Klare to be specific about the code of ethics that the officer did not follow. Ms. Klare responded that the officer arrested Paul and his son, and the unnecessary force and violence. REVEREND KEN SLAUGHTER (Complaint HPC 09 -22) stated that he is the pastor of the First Hawaiian Church of the Holy Smoke and was there on behalf of Mr. Sulla. The police are not being properly trained. Part of the problem is because of Lincoln Ashida. The people voted on it, and it became law. When these things came down, they asked Ashida to clarify, and they came up with all kinds of ambiguous things. They now have the right to have 24 marijuana plants and 24 oz. of marijuana. That's more than 1 1/2 lbs. All these people are in cahoots because they want to seize people's land and cars. When you get this kind of authoritative people pulling this kind of crap, when you don't clarify the law properly, the police are going to get sued; the county is going to get sued. STEVEN BARNES (Compliant HPC 09 -27) stated that he believes the officer knew the intersection was faulty. He had to wait several minutes for the light to change. The intersection box had been broken. He felt the officer was there to wait for anyone to run the light. He tried everything, driving back and forth, to trigger the light change. The officer was waiting at the KTA shopping center for someone to run the light. The officer told him, that he could tell his story but he would not listen. He felt that was disrespectful. The officer didn't give him a chance to explain. The judge dismissed the case. He had to go through all this because the officer didn't want to listen to him. STEVEN BARNES (Complaint HPC 09 -27) stated that he was parked on Banyan Drive in a permissible parking area. The officer ordered him to leave or he would write him a citation. This same officer did this to him months prior.