Neighbor Island briefs

Advertiser Staff and News Services

BIG ISLAND

Tina Thill is missing from home since Nov. 4.

Big Island police are looking for a 17-year-old girl missing from Hawaiian Paradise Park home since Nov. 4.

Tina Thill is 5 feet 3 and about 105 pounds. She has blond hair and blue eyes.

Call Officer Peter Kualii at (808) 961-2373, or call the nonemergency police number at (808) 935-3311.

Anyone who wishes to remain anonymous may call CrimeStoppers at 961-8300 in Hilo or 329-8181 in Kona.

Big Isle policeman acquitted of abuse

HILO, Hawai'i — A Big Island police officer has been acquitted of charges that he abused a woman who said she was his girlfriend.

A Circuit Court jury in Hilo found Warren Ke, 38, not guilty of misdemeanor charges of unlawful imprisonment, abuse of a household member and slapping and hitting the woman, 21-year-old Kina Dempster.

Deputy Prosecutor Michael Udovic argued the case before Judge Riki May Amano.

If he had been convicted, the Ka'u District officer would have been barred from carrying a gun and could have lost his job.

After the verdict was returned about 9 p.m., the officer's attorney, Brenda Carreira, said Ke is "very happy and relieved."

Dempster said that she was "devastated," but that she was not surprised by the verdicts.

She has admitted using drugs extensively and is in a rehabilitation program.

Dempster testified that she had an intimate relationship with Ke.

She told the court that the incident occurred while Ke was staying with her family in Ocean View during March.

Ke took the stand to testify in his own defense. He denied the allegations and said he and Dempster were just casual friends.

KAUA'I

Police arrest man in Kaua'i collision

A 26-year-old man was under arrest and a 28-year-old woman was hospitalized in critical condition after a head-on collision yesterday on Kaua'i.

Police said the collision occurred in Hanapepe on Kaumuali'i Highway at about 4:30 a.m.

The man was driving a truck westbound on the highway and crossed the center line, colliding with the woman's car which was heading east.

She was flown to O'ahu for treatment at The Queen's Medical Center where a nursing supervisor said she was in critical condition yesterday evening.

The man was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

MAUI

Maui hiker, 52, killed in fall

A 52-year-old Maui hiker died yesterday after falling several hundred feet down a mountainside.

Authorities did not identify the man.

Firefighters said he had been hiking with another man several miles inland of mile marker 10 on Hana Highway.

At about 3 p.m., the other man reported his companion had fallen about 300 feet.

Firefighters using a helicopter attempted a rescue, but when they reached him, he was dead.