Posted on: Friday, February 14, 2003
Police Beat
Boy charged in mugging
A 14-year-old boy was charged Wednesday as a juvenile in connection with a Feb. 3 mugging of a 50-year-old custodian at Waipahu Intermediate School.
Detective Peter Boyle said Honolulu police had been looking for the youth when he was arrested yesterday on suspicion of shoplifting. Police said the boy was identified as the one who allegedly hit a 50-year-old man with a piece of lumber on Feb. 3.
The youth was charged with second-degree assault and unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle. His Family Court preliminary hearing was scheduled for today.
Last Friday, police charged a 13-year-old boy with unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle and unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle in connection with the Feb. 3 case. The boy is being held at the Alder Street detention facility, Boyle said.
The victim, whose truck was stolen, suffered a cut to his head and a dislocated finger, police said.
HPD helicopter helps in arrests
The Honolulu Police Department's helicopter was used Wednesday in separate arrests of two people on suspicion of auto theft in Leeward O'ahu.
At 10:05 a.m., the helicopter unit checked the license plate of a suspicious vehicle at Hau Bush park and determined it was stolen. The helicopter landed and police officers arrested a 29-year-old man, who attempted to flee on foot.
In the afternoon, the helicopter was used to help find a car that was reported stolen at 3 p.m. in Kapolei. The suspect was seen on Farrington Highway. The driver crashed the car at 6:15 p.m. in Kapolei and was arrested at the scene.
Man wanted in rental fraud
Police are looking for a 30-year-old man who is wanted on a $20,000 court warrant in connection with a rental scam investigation involving a Hawai'i Kai home.
Detective Letha DeCaires said the arrest warrant for Ronald Ken Dufrene was issued Jan. 28 on Maui when he did not appear in court. Dufrene is under indictment in eight cases, including identity theft, theft, burglary and forgery, DeCaires said.
Dufrene fits the description of a man known as David Aaron Taub, Allan Terence Hamlin and Jeff Lansford who has been posing as a real estate broker and showing rental units on Maui and O'ahu. First-month rent was collected from prospects in the scam.
The man was believed to be at a vacant house on Kaumakani Street Tuesday. Police were alerted but the man drove off in a stolen vehicle, police said..
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Robert Cravalho at 529-3873 or CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *Crime on cell phone.
Federal charges levied in robbery
A 37-year-old Kalihi man was charged yesterday in a federal complaint stemming from Tuesday's robbery at the Bank of Hawaii branch at 1950 N. King St.
Roddy Tanaka is being held on a $500 outstanding traffic warrant and will be turned over today to federal prosecutors, said Capt. Alan Arita, acting commander of the Honolulu Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division.
Tanaka was arrested based on information from a witness, who provided police with a license-plate number of the suspect vehicle shortly after the bank was robbed.
Alleged parole violator arrested
Police yesterday morning arrested Wayne Takahashi Uehara, who had been wanted for a parole-violation warrant.
The 39-year-old Uehara was arrested at 10:35 a.m. at an apartment unit at 1623 Alapai Street, police said. Officers from the Criminal Investigation Division's Career Criminal Unit found Uehara based on a CrimeStoppers tip. A handgun and ammunition were recovered in a closet in the same room at the time of the arrest, police said.
