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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0272.007 1998-2000 ro: lames Arakaki, Chairman, Hawaii County Council Cc: All County Council Members From: Michael L. Dubberstein, Discovery Harbour, Ka'u _ Date: December 27, 1999 o § Subject: Opposition of continue payment of legal fees for• W~ay~, Carvalho and Francis DeMorales. _ ~ ' _ , c:n i I am writing this letter to express my opposition of the County ofrHawSiP continuing to pay the legal expenses for Wayne Carvalho and FrapCis ` DeMorales in connection to their appeal of their punitive damages in Suva v. County of Hawaii. I am a plaintiff in this case, both Carvalho and DeMorales have each been assessed $25,000 in punitive damages awarded to me. I, along with the twelve dHzens on the jury, have sat through the over eight weeks of trial and have Ilstened to all the evidence in this case. The ]ury, of twelve citizens of the County of Hawaii, has decided unanimously that DeMorales and Carvalho should personally pay a large amount of money in punitive damages. These damages are to panish these defendairts for their actions. It also sends a message to others that they can not get away with this kind of behavior. The County has already spent between $2.5 and $3 million on legal fees for this case. The furors have assessed punitive damages against Carvalho and DeMorales. I would find it outrageous if the County would continue to pay Demorales's and Carvalho's lawyers to appeal their personal punitive damages. I feel that the use of our tax dollars should not be use for their personal gain. If these defendarns want to appeal their judgement against them they should shoulder the cost of these appeals on their own, with out the use of our tax dollars. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing" Edmund Burke 1729-1797 Michael L. Dubberstein Citizen and Taxpayer Comm. Na'Z • 0 0'r File No. COQ lief. ~9: C p U N G 1 L ~ate_ nFr. ~ a lgao Posted on: Sunday, December 5, 1999 Honolulu Advertiser Trial on alleged police corruption shakes BiS Isle's loyalty By Tanya Bricking Advertiser Staff Writer The dirty laundry of the Hawaii County Police Department has bean out in the open for two months in a Hilo courtroom, and the airing has been ugly and expensive. A civil trial in 3rd Circuit Court, which has cost Hawaii County $3 million to defend, hinges on the allegation that an administration sworn to protect and serve the public is made up of people who, for years, lied and cheated by rigging promotional exams. A jury is scheduled to resume deliberations tomorrow to decide whether to award 19 current and retired officers as much as $16 million in damages for alleged rigging that dates back to 1984. What's at stake is more than money. It is the credibility of a police department. The Big Island, sprawling land of volcanoes and coffee plantations, is home to 143,000 people and patrolled by about 300 officers. The pace of life is slow in towns like Hilo, where morning talk at the bait shop drifts from police promotions to produce vendors. Words such as "tradition" and "loyalty" used to describe what held the police force together. The court battle is poking holes in the thin blue line. This is personal. "You know, they talk about a brotherhood or sisterfaod of cops,° said Lt. James Kelly, one of the officers suing the county. "Nwe're like a family, it's like finding out your parents never liked you and wished you were never born. It's that amount of betrayal." Kelly, 49, of Puna, a Big Island officer since 1979, figures he lost $102,737 in wages because he wasn't promoted to captain in 1991. He says he is speaking out because he wants to make a drtference in the place where he has devoted his career. A difference would mean changing the dynamics of a county where a small amount of people control everything - a cirGe, he said. For him, that is "why for a lot of folks, this town goes nowhere." Those who wield the most power in Hawaii County are more tight-lipped on the subject. Mayor Stephen Yamashiro, a Democrat who appoints the police commission, said he's not ready to weigh in on the topic until a Vial verdict is in. Others are fed up with the silence. BoMhed investigaRions County Council members say they agreed to spend the money to bring the case to trial rather than settle because they wanted the public to be aware of what was happening. "I've lived on this island 17 years, and 1've felt people needed to be disgusted by the good of boy system bng ago,° said Green Party Councilwoman Julie Jacobson of the Ka'u district, The county is paying fees for private attorneys to represent the police officials on trial to avoid any conflict of interest. The cost is worth it to bring out the truth, said Curtis Tyler, a Republican serving the North Kona district, one of the only council members who responded to requests seeking comment. Criticism of the police department has come in waves in recent years, with accusations that the department botched the investigation into the 1991 rape and murder of Dana Ireland and overlooked the 1993 missing case of Sequoya Vargas until officers discovered that she, too, was raped and killed. Not since the 1992 death of Yvonne Mathison have police themselves been accused of covering up for fellow officers. Three years after Mathison was supposedly run over on a rainy stretch of Volcano Highway, her police sergeant husband, Kenneth Mathison, was convicted of beating her to death. "Mathison was the catalyst that got this going," said Del Pranke, 53, of Puna, part of the now-disbanded Citizens for Justice watchdog group. "This code of blue is such that it makes it hard for them to stand up." Flaws in the promotion process came to light when officers sued retired Deputy Police Chief Francis DeMOrales and current Chief Wayne Carvalho over allegations that promotions were rigged for a decade under retired police chiefs Guy Paul and Victor Verre. It became apparent to the public that officers were fed up to the point that they were willing to take risks to speak out, said Jon Olson, 55, a Puna man who has been following the trial. During two months of testimony, Carvalho testfied he relayed to a promotion board the names of officers Paul wanted promoted. DeMorales has admitted rigging exams for afour-year period but said he was following orders from Paul. Brian De Lima, who represents Paul, says the former chief intended to confront the corruption with an investigation rather than covering it up. But De Lima acknowledges the department's extreme credibility problem. "It's going to be tremendously difficult to restore confidence overnight," he said. Politics of professionalism Across the country, civil lawsuits have helped prompt improvement of police promotion processes, said David Morris, president of Morris & McDaniel Inc., a consulting business based in Washington. "Rigged promotions are something that have disappeared from most police departments," he said. The most effective police agencies use people from the outside to help judge candidates, said Craig Fraser, director of management services for the Police Exewtive Research Forum in Washington. "It puts the checks and balances in poace,° Fraser said. "It takes personal knowledge of the person out of the equation." But on the Big Island, not everyone wants personal knowledge to be eliminated from the process. Family connections are part of the way of life. Former Chief Paul filled the legacy of his father, Anthony Paul, who was the Big Island's top cop for more than two decades. Retired patrolman Adam Carvalho, 69, has mixed feelings about how much should change. "The chief has the right to hire and fire who he likes," said Carvalho, who is not related to the current chief. But connections in his community run deep. He opposes written testing and wants to keep outsiders out of the picture. He also doesn't want his tax dollars going to pay disgnmtled officers. "There has to be somebody taking responsibility," said Michael Green, the lead attorney for the officers suing the county. "This jury has to make a statement that they don't tolerate this kind of coruption." Paut O'Leary, 47, a Hilo man who was cleaning out ice cream bins at Elsie's Fountain Service as the trial was ending last week, said people want changes without more costs to them in the economically depressed county. "The guys at the top who are in anyway tainted have got to go," he said. "You can't have a polarized community. We have to bring back that mist." No matter whether a jury awards damages or accepts the way the promotion process has worked for so long, people can no longer remain complacent, said Tanny Cazimero, 47, of Waimea, a traffic accident investigator. "It's asmall-town mentality," said Cazimero, who has been on the force for about 15 years. "It's ablue-collar town. That kind of sets the stage for the way people handle controversies." For years, officers never spoke up about problems with promotions because they were concerned about their paychecks, he said. °tt's been brewing," he said. "Truth has a way to creep right up at you if you don't deal with it. "It's pretty much adrinking-buddy, t- screwed-up, you-don't-say-nothing-I-don't-say-nothing system. This is what they indoctrinate you with as recruits: We don't make waves." With this trial, he said, renkand-file officers have finally made their splash.