Sexual-assault charges against officer voided
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
A Circuit Court judge has thrown out criminal charges against a Honolulu police officer who was accused of sexually assaulting a North Shore woman while on duty in September 2000.
Jerry A. Gallardo, now 35, was indicted on one count of second-degree sexual assault and six counts of fourth-degree sexual assault after a 46-year-old woman claimed she was sexually assaulted by a uniformed officer on Sept. 30, 2000.
Jerry Gallardo was indicted on charges of second-degree sexual assault, but the charges are now dismissed.
Circuit Judge Wilfred Watanabe ruled on Monday that Gallardo was denied his constitutional rights to due process. The prosecutor's office did not notify Gallardo's lawyer, Daphne Barbee-Wooten, until the eve of his trial that Gallardo's accuser secretly tape-recorded a conversation she had with him several days after the alleged assault.
Barbee-Wooten said that hearings on the validity of the tape were held in March and April this year and that Watanabe on Monday sided with FBI specialists who concluded that long pauses on the tape were the result of efforts to erase portions of the conversation between Gallardo and the woman.
Barbee-Wooten said the woman claimed at the earlier hearings that she did not tamper with the tape recording and suggested that the pauses were the result of naturally occurring breaks in her conversation with Gallardo.
The pauses were unusual because they contained no background noises, Barbee-Wooten said, and FBI experts could not establish what was said on the erased portions of the tape.
Barbee-Wooten said Watanabe dismissed the charges against Gallardo "with prejudice," meaning he cannot be re-indicted.
The prosecutor's office may, however, appeal Watanabe's ruling although no decision had been made yesterday.
Gallardo, who was assigned to the Wahiawa station when the accusations against him were made, was reassigned to desk duty and works out of the main police station.
