Settlements cost state $16 million
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer
The state will pay out more than $16 million this year to end dozens of lawsuits over issues ranging from incarceration of the mentally ill to Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign fund-raising.
Gov. Linda Lingle said she believed many of the suits could have been avoided, and that her administration would work hard to improve the state's risk-management strategies.
"It's a horrible feeling to know that while we are working so hard to fund critical programs for people in our state, we're also paying out large sums of money for actions that were taken that were often times unnecessary or stupid or shortsighted, and now the taxpayers are going to pay the bill for it," Lingle said.
In the costliest case, the state will pay $7 million to settle two class-action suits stemming from 1994 changes to Hawai'i's Medicaid program, which excluded thousands of elderly, blind and disabled clients.
Federal courts ruled that eligibility rules for the managed-care program for low-income families, QUEST, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act.
The state will also pay nearly $2 million to settle sexual harassment and discrimination claims filed against the Department of Public Safety by three female former employees.
The women won a judgment of $4.1 million, but the state attorney general's office negotiated the lower amount in exchange for forgoing the right to appeal the case.
Another judgment awarded nearly $1.8 million to the parents of two girls who were molested by a teacher at Mokapu Elementary School on Marine Corps Base Hawai'i in Kane'ohe.
The suit charged that school officials failed to thoroughly investigate earlier molestation charges against the teacher, Lawrence Norton, and should have prevented the later crimes, which occurred in 1994 and 1995.
Norton pleaded no contest to criminal charges that he fondled another student, and was fired and sentenced to one year in jail in 1996. Prosecutors said Norton had admitting to molesting two dozen children.
The state and Norton were both found liable in the civil case in 2000, but the Hawai'i Supreme Court later ruled that the state should pay Norton's half of the damages.
A sum of $1.5 million will be paid to settle a case filed by a construction worker who was injured by an electric current in 2000 after state workers failed to shut off power to a utility block he was helping install.
The accident, at Kamakee Street and Ala Moana, occurred when the man cut a wire with a jackhammer. He was permanently disabled.
The state will pay $1.05 million to settle a class-action suit filed over the state's treatment of mentally ill prisoners.
The suit charged that inmates acquitted of crimes because of their impaired mental state were often held in jail longer than necessary, under poor conditions and without proper care.
In a 1994 memo, former prison medical director Dr. Kim Thorburn warned superiors that "such individuals are illegally placed in a correctional facility and our liability is extreme."
But changes were slow in coming, and the state was repeatedly accused of violating a judge's order that mentally ill prisoners be transferred to the state psychiatric hospital within 48 hours.
Thorburn was one of four original plaintiffs in the gender bias case against the Department of Public Safety, but her claim was dismissed by a jury.
The state attorney general's office negotiated a $126,000 settlement with Harris supporter Lex Smith, who had challenged fund-raising limits the state Campaign Spending Commission imposed on Harris during his run for governor. The Legislature agreed to appropriate only $63,000.
A judge ruled it unconstitutional for the commission to count donations made to Harris' 2000 mayoral re-election campaign toward the $6,000-per-donor limit for last year's governor's race.
Attorneys for Harris and his campaign will receive a $45,000 portion of the payout.
Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
Correction: The state attorney general's office negotiated a $126,000 settlement with Lex Smith, who had challenged fund-raising limits the state Campaign Spending Commission imposed on Mayor Jeremy Harris during his run for governor. The Legislature agreed to appropriate only $63,000. Information in a previous version of this story was incorrect.
