Arakawa gets maximum 20-year term
| • | Highlights of the Clyde Arakawa case |
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By David Waite and Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writers
Closing a case that left a 19-year-old woman dead, a veteran police officer behind bars and two families shattered, Honolulu police officer Clyde Arakawa was handed a 20-year prison sentence yesterday, the maximum term for his manslaughter conviction.
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The sentence came after Arakawa apologized in court to the family of Dana Ambrose, 19, who was killed on Oct. 7, 2000, on the Pali Highway. Arakawa, who had consumed 11 beers in six hours, plowed into her car as it crossed School Street.
Former police officer Clyde Arakawa talks with his mother after being sentenced for killing Dana Ambrose while driving drunk. His father and grandmother are at left.
"I respectfully offer my prayers and heartfelt sympathies to them," Arakawa said of the Ambrose family. "I feel badly — this ordeal has also hurt my family and friends who stood by me."
Arakawa, 50, who embraced his elderly mother after the sentencing, told the court he "never envisioned becoming involved in a situation like this." He said he felt a "sense of pride and accomplishment" upon retiring after more than 20 years as a Honolulu police officer, but now feels "shame and dishonor."
Although he has never taken responsibility for causing the collision and Ambrose's death, Arakawa told the Ambroses that he has a 19-year-old son he loves and realizes that only those who have lost a child can truly understand the pain.
"I am very sorry for what has happened," Arakawa said.
Dana Ambrose's mother, Susan Ambrose, had asked Circuit Judge Karen Ahn to impose the maximum, 20-year sentence, saying the incident left her with "a heart forever broken."
"My grief as a mother is profound," Susan Ambrose said.
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Gone, she said, is the wedding for her daughter that will never be, and grandchildren she will never see.
Susan Ambrose weeps as family and friends talk about her daughter, who was killed when Arakawa ran a red light and hit her car.
"I can honestly tell you I might never heal," she said. "These past 18 months have been filled with pure agony and pain, suffering beyond anyone can imagine."
Rod Ambrose, Dana's father, said he learned of his daughter's death while on a business trip when he called his office to check his messages between flights. The news brought him to his knees, he said.
Losing a daughter was like losing part of the foundation that supports his family, the father said. "She was my baby girl," he said.
Arakawa's sentence should serve as a stern warning to anyone with a prior criminal conviction involving alcohol abuse, Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said yesterday.
If they drink and drive and kill someone, they will likely serve a long prison sentence "in a cold, dark cell," he said. "The bar has been raised."
It will now be up to the Hawaii Paroling Authority to determine how many years Arakawa must spend in prison before he is eligible for parole.
Tommy Johnson, Hawaii Paroling Authority administrator, could not say immediately how many years Arakawa would serve. "We will look at his case and make a decision within six months," he said.
But Johnson said 12 people convicted of manslaughter from July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2001, were given an average of 10.72 years to serve before becoming eligible for parole.
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The minimum terms ranged from 6.67 years to 20 years, he said.
Clyde Arakawa apologized to the family of Dana Ambrose before his sentencing, though he has never taken responsibility for her death.
Ahn had the option of sentencing Arakawa to probation and up to a year in jail, but imposed the stiffer sentence after Ambrose's friends and family members urged her to make the former officer pay the consequences of drinking and driving.
Carlisle asked Ahn to make an example of Arakawa. He argued during the trial that a 1992 incident in which Arakawa was found drunk and passed out on the floor of a stranger's house in Kailua was clear notice to Arakawa of the debilitating effect alcohol had upon him.
Arakawa was convicted of misdemeanor trespass in that case, which Carlisle used as the foundation for the manslaughter conviction. Carlisle argued it showed Arakawa knew that it was dangerous for him to drive while drunk.
Arakawa's attorney, Michael Ostendorp, urged Ahn to hand down a sentence of no more than a year in jail, which he said another man, whom he did not name, had received recently after being convicted of manslaughter in a fatal drunk driving case.
In asking for that sentence, Ostendorp quoted from a letter he said he had received in support of his client.
Ostendorp said the unnamed letter writer felt that "what happened to Clyde Arakawa was not a true reflection" of a man who spent "more than 20 years in a profession aimed at preserving life, not taking it."
After the sentence was announced, Ostendorp said he intended to appeal Arakawa's conviction, but could not immediately say on what grounds.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
