Detective wins right to modify suit against HPD

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

A detective who claims he was wrongly forced out of the Honolulu Police Department's elite Criminal Intelligence Unit was given permission yesterday to modify his lawsuit to assert that the department launched an Internal Affairs investigation to retaliate against him.

Federal Magistrate Judge Leslie Kobayashi granted attorney Mark Bennett's request to file an amended complaint on behalf of veteran police detective Kenneth Kamakana.

Kamakana claimed in a lawsuit filed last year that he was transferred out of the unit for telling federal officials about what he believed to be corruption within that group.

Kamakana said in the lawsuit that his efforts to make his supervisors within the department aware of the situation were routinely ignored.

At yesterday's hearing, Bennett said Kamakana wanted to amend his original lawsuit to include a claim that an Internal Affairs criminal and administrative investigation into Kamakana's decision to turn over police department files to federal investigators was retaliation for his bringing the lawsuit against the department and various officials, including Police Chief Lee Donohue.

"It is undisputed that this is the first Internal Affairs investigation into conduct like this in the history of the Honolulu Police Department," Bennett said.

He said the Internal Affairs probe of Kamakana is akin to "investigating someone for reporting (an alleged) crime to law enforcement officials."

But John Zalewski, an attorney who represents Donohue, told Kobayashi that Donohue played no part in asking for the Internal Affairs investigation.

The investigation was initiated in June or July after Kamakana disclosed in court filings that he had turned over police files and tape recordings to federal investigators, Zalewski said.

He turned over the items without authorization, and that's why the Internal Affairs investigation was begun, Zalewski said.

Attorney Jerold Matayoshi, who represented the city and Honolulu Police Department, said federal courts in other jurisdictions have ruled that Internal Affairs investigations do not constitute "adverse employment actions" against employees who dispute disciplinary action taken against them by their law enforcement employers.

But Bennett said those decisions were not applicable in Kamakana's case.

In addition to allowing Kamakana to amend his complaint, Kobayashi rejected a request to bar reporters and other members of the public from yesterday's hearing.

Matayoshi had argued that statements made at the hearing in reference to previously taken depositions might compromise the police department's Internal Affairs investigative process.

But Kobayashi sided with Bennett, who argued that there was no legal reason to bar the public from yesterday's hearing, and no need to delve into the depositions.

Bennett called an argument by opposing attorneys that the new allegation of misconduct by HPD officials for conducting the Internal Affairs investigation of Kamakana should remain sealed "outrageous."

Those attorneys had argued that making the claim public would engender distrust of the Honolulu Police Department and disrupt the department's operations in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Kobayashi said she would seal the latest allegations only if they revealed the identity of undercover officers or jeopardized the public's safety or that of individual police officers.

Kamakana remains an HPD detective, currently assigned to the narcotics/vice division. His case is scheduled to go to trial in May.

Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.