Posted on: Friday, August 31, 2001

Arakawa trial postponed until January

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

Despite strong objections by City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle, Circuit Judge Karen Ahn yesterday postponed until January the trial of former Honolulu police officer Clyde Arakawa on manslaughter charges.

Arakawa's trial had been scheduled to start Sept. 17. But Arakawa's attorney, Michael Ostendorp told Ahn that as many as four expert witnesses who might be called to aid in Arakawa's defense backed out of commitments to travel to Hawai'i after finding out that Arakawa had run out of money.

Prosecutors maintain that Arakawa, 49, was drunk when his 1993 Ford Thunderbird broadsided a 2000 Honda Civic at the intersection of Pali Highway and School Street, killing Dana Ambrose.

Ostendorp says that Ambrose, 19, was speeding home from work and ran the red light, and that Arakawa, off-duty at the time, did not cause the collision.

"Miss Ambrose was speeding home from work, endangered the life of Mr. Arakawa and the public's as well, and essentially killed herself," Ostendorp told Ahn, who immediately told him not to try to litigate the case at a preliminary hearing.

In asking for the postponement of the trial, Ostendorp argued at an earlier hearing that he might have to become an expert himself on many of the complex issues involved in the case, such as accident reconstruction and biomechanics, that are expected to be presented at trial — if the defense can't call its expert witness.

Ahn earlier refused Ostendorp's request to use public money to pay for the expert witnesses because Arakawa has exhausted his own money.

At the hearing yesterday, Ostendorp said private citizens have come forward to help pay for the experts he wants to bring to Hawai'i. Ahn also reviewed several letters from Ostendorp's expert witnesses who said trying to travel to Honolulu for a trial starting Sept. 17 would be difficult.

Carlisle, however, went through each of the letters and argued that none of Ostendorp's expert witnesses said it would be impossible to rearrange their schedules to make the Sept. 17 trial date.

Carlisle also gave Ahn a letter written by Ambrose's parents who asked that the trial begin in September, as planned.

Ostendorp objected to the letter, saying that Ambrose's parents have concluded that Arakawa caused their daughter's death, even though the trial has yet to begin.

Meanwhile, the growing tension between Carlisle and Ostendorp was apparent at yesterday's hearing with each of them accusing the other of withholding information they have discovered about the case.

Ahn warned Ostendorp that if he does not share information in a timely fashion with Carlisle about the expert witnesses the defense plans to call, she may go so far as to keep the witnesses from testifying. Under the revised schedule, jury selection will start Jan. 14, with the actual trial expected to begin the week of Jan. 28.

Ahn said she was granting Ostendorp's request for the delay to ensure that Arakawa receives a fair trial. The case has attracted a greater than usual amount of public and media scrutiny primarily because Arakawa, though off-duty at the time of the incident, received special treatment by fellow officers immediately following the incident, Police Chief Lee Donohue has acknowledged.