By William Cole
Advertiser Staff Writer
Honolulu police are conducting a criminal investigation of an administrator at the state Judiciary Administrative Driver’s License Revocation Office for releasing information about former police officer Clyde Arakawa following his fatal collision with 19-year-old Dana Ambrose last year.
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| Clyde Arakawa's case has come under scrutiny. |
"We basically want to know how the information was released, and if the release was proper," police spokeswoman Jean Motoyama said yesterday.
Honolulu Police Chief Lee Donohue could not be reached for comment, but Motoyama’s remark came after police Detective Chris Duque interviewed an Advertiser staff writer yesterday about the release of the information and told him the questioning was in connection with the filing of possible criminal action against Ronald Sakata, the chief adjudicator of the license revocation office.
Sakata yesterday said he was unaware a criminal probe was under way and declined to comment.
But in the wake of a federal lawsuit filed against him by Arakawa, Sakata said it is now "reasonable" to remove information like Social Security numbers from documents released by his office until a definitive policy is put in place.
"We were operating under the basic assumption that our records are public records," he said.
It was unclear yesterday whether police interviewed other media, which also reported details from documents submitted by police to the license revocation office. Arakawa’s driver’s license was revoked following the Oct. 7 crash at School Street and Pali Highway.
It was also unclear what charges police were considering, although the detective indicated they were reviewing state law dealing with the disclosure of governmental records. Duque also could not be reached for comment after his interview with the reporter.
Since the crash, the police department’s handling of the Arakawa case has come under public scrutiny. Police initially said Arakawa was not given any special treatment, but Donohue later acknowledged officers at the crash scene gave him special "courtesies." Donohue's statements came after KHON television aired video showing Arakawa walking freely around the collision scene.
Arakawa, who was off duty at the time and has since retired, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and first-degree negligent homicide, but was later released pending investigation.
Jim Fulton of the city prosecutor’s office said the police investigation has been turned over to prosecutors. An O‘ahu grand jury last week heard testimony from a waitress who worked at a bar where Arakawa reportedly stopped the night of the crash, Arakawa’s lawyer Michael Ostendorp said yesterday. It was not immediately known whether the panel will convene to hear more evidence.
Yesterday’s disclosure of the investigation over the documents release comes a day after U.S. District Judge David Ezra threw out a lawsuit in which Arakawa claimed Sakata’s release of his home address, birth date, Social Security number and police reports about the collision violated Arakawa’s right to privacy.
Ezra concluded Sakata made "a misjudgment," but did not violate the law. The federal judge said there is "not a single case filed in this federal court’s district or in the state of Hawai‘i law that says it is illegal to release a Social Security number in a case like this."
In all likelihood, though, the Social Security number should not have been released, Ezra said.
Ostendorp said he was unsure if charges are appropriate.
"I would have to take a look at more of the facts there," he said. "I don’t even know what the criminal violation is."
Advertiser staff writer David Waite contributed to this report.
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