Posted on: Friday, July 12, 2002
Legal bill nears $800,000 in suit against city, police
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer
Defending the city and the Honolulu Police Department in a federal lawsuit in which a veteran police detective charged there is corruption in the department has cost taxpayers more than $500,000, and that amount is expected to rise to more than $800,000 next week.
Yesterday, the City Council's executive matters committee, upon which all nine council members sit, approved spending up to $300,000 more to represent the city in the civil suit brought by Kenneth Kamakana, a detective with 27 years' experience in the department.
The matter was approved in a closed-door executive session, but the action taken became public in documents released after the meeting. The full City Council is expected to approve spending the money for additional legal services at its next meeting Wednesday.
According to the resolutions filed on the matter, attorneys hired to defend the city, Police Chief Lee Donohue and Capt. Milton Olmos have billed the city for $538,502. The documents also indicate that a trial is set for November.
Kamakana filed suit in November 2000, charging that corruption by officers assigned to the police department's Criminal Intelligence Unit has been routinely ignored and that he was punitively transferred after reporting the activity.
Councilman John Henry Felix, who is chairman of the executive matters committee, declined to discuss details of the case.
The city is hiring private attorneys to handle its defense because it would be a conflict of interest to have attorneys in the corporation counsel's office defend the police as well as representing and defending the city.
However, Felix said he and other council members are concerned about the mounting legal fees.
"Attorneys' fees are always of concern to us," Felix said. "These are very difficult cases. They're accusations of corruption and very sensitive."
Felix said the council members believed that approving the additional money was necessary.
"Under the circumstances, we had not many options," he said.
The Criminal Intelligence Unit reports directly to the police chief and is responsible for gathering information to investigate organized crime.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit:
• A friend of one of the ranking officers in the unit tried to buy out a man believe to be associated with organized crime. When the man refused, he was arrested and later convicted of an unrelated crime. The alleged involvement of the unit officers prompted the FBI to open an investigation in the matter.
• The same friend of the officer asked a unit detective to help him get back $30,000 he loaned to a man that the intelligence officers used as a confidential informant.
• An investigator worked as a private security guard during some of the same hours he was paid by the city. After two supervisors reported it, they were transferred, and no action was taken against the officer.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
