Judge to rule on allowing Arakawa intoxilyzer test
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
A state judge will rule Tuesday on whether an intoxilyzer test of former police officer Clyde Arakawa administered seven hours after a fatal collision last October can be used against him in his manslaughter trial next year.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The prosecution plans to use an expert witness' interpretation of the test result to establish that Arakawa was drunk at 11:50 p.m. last Oct. 7 when his car collided with Dana Ambrose's sedan at Pali Highway and School Street. Ambrose was killed in the crash.
Stepping into the glare of news media lights, attorney Michael Ostendorp, left, and client Clyde Arakawa leave a pre-trial hearing in Arakawa's manslaughter case.
But Michael Ostendorp, Arakawa's attorney, contends the breath test constitutes a search and police obtained the evidence without a search warrant.
Arakawa was administered the test at 7:01 a.m. It showed a blood alcohol content level of .06. Dr. Clifford Wong, a forensic toxicologist and potential expert witness for the state, will testify that based on the result, Arakawa's blood alcohol level would have been .162 at the time of the collision. The legal level for drunken driving is .08.
The parties presented their arguments yesterday before Circuit Judge Karen Ahn in the latest round of pretrial jockeying.
Arakawa, a retired officer, had refused to take a field-sobriety test at the scene and was taken to HPD's main station cellblock, where he was booked for driving under the influence and negligent homicide.
He was given what's called a "felony intoxilyzer" test administered by Officer John Gabriel to determine if he was fit for questioning by investigators.
Gabriel testified he told Arakawa that intoxilyzer results would not affect his case in any way because he believed that to be true. But lead vehicular homicide investigator Sgt. David Talon testified that he has used intoxilyzer results as evidence in other negligent homicide cases.
Ostendorp called it a "back door" method to get samples.
City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle argued that Hawai'i's Implied Consent Law governs the taking of intoxication evidence in Arakawa's case and in any others when drunken driving results in death or injury. In his written motion, Carlisle said, "Officer Gabriel was not trying to deceive Arakawa, he was just misinformed on the law. The bottom line is, whether or not it would affect his case, Arakawa had no right to refuse to take an alcohol concentration test."
Arakawa's trial is scheduled to start in January.
