Police officer's arrest met with shock, sadness
By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer
Family and friends of Honolulu police officer Harold Cabbab Jr. said they were shocked and saddened by federal charges accusing the former standout outfielder for the University of Hawai'i baseball team of trying to steal a crystal methamphetamine shipment from drug dealers and sell the drugs for a $100,000 profit.
While the Honolulu Police Department was in the process of stripping the 10-year veteran of his police powers, Cabbab's half sister, Sayan Cabbab, a 15-year-old living on Kaua'i, said her family is devastated by the news that Harold Cabbab Jr. is accused of being mixed up in a drug heist.
"I didn't really expect that from him. I thought he was a real good person going on the right track and then this happens," she said. "He got a job, kids, a nice house. This was really a shock to our family."
Cabbab is at least the third police officer in the state to be arrested in connection with an ice case in the past five years and his is another well-known name linked to the state's crystal meth epidemic. In November, former Miss Hawai'i USA Tiffini Limahai pleaded guilty to possessing crystal methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. She is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 12.
"You look up to these people as heroes and then something like this happen and it's like 'wow,' it has to kick you in the stomach a little bit," said Alan Shinn, executive director of the Coalition for a Drug Free Hawai'i. "It's like, 'Who isn't involved in this?' "
According to court documents, Cabbab allegedly planned to steal ice with another person who was working as an informant for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The plan called for the pair to dress up like undercover police officers and steal between 18 pounds and 20 pounds of ice and 4 pounds of cocaine soon after a shipment arrived from California.
Cabbab told the informant, who recorded about a half-dozen conversations, that he had previously stolen several pounds of marijuana from a drug dealer, the documents show. Cabbab was arrested the day after federal agents saw him and the informant breaking into a storage locker where agents had planted a large amount of fake ice.
Honolulu Police Chief Boisse Correa issued a statement yesterday that the department is cooperating with federal officials on the investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Kawahara declined to comment on the relationship between the informant and Cabbab or to say how the scheme originated. He also would not say whether Cabbab had been the target of previous federal investigations.
He said there was no indication that Cabbab was an ice user.
The court documents state that Cabbab appeared in his HPD uniform at the informant's residence in mid-October and the two discussed ways to steal drugs from a drug dealer. Cabbab said they each would make about $100,000, according to the affidavit.
On the tapes, Cabbab talked about wanting to know the identity of the dealers, using bogus license plates for a rental car so they wouldn't get caught, pretending to be on official police business when they took the drugs, carrying duct tape to tape the victims' mouths and telling the informant that he should be armed.
"Just hope we don't get into one shootout," Cabbab is heard saying, according to the documents.
Cabbab is being held without bail at the federal detention center at the airport and a hearing is set for tomorrow on whether he can be released. Federal prosecutors are asking that he remain jailed without bail. They contend that if he is released, he'd pose a danger and may flee.
A preliminary hearing has been set for Dec. 28.
Cabbab spent the last 10 years as a patrol officer in the Pearl City patrol district.
Cabbab's father, Harold Sr., died in 1992 and his mother, Brenda Gomes, could not be reached for comment.
Former UH baseball coach Les Murakami, speaking through his wife, Dot, said that Cabbab was an excellent player and a good guy. He declined to comment on Cabbab's arrest.
Cabbab is married to former UH Wahine volleyball player Jenny Wilton, the daughter of UH men's volleyball coach Mike Wilton. The couple have two young children.
The Wilton family declined comment.
Several of Cabbab's former UH and Kamehameha Schools classmates and teammates also declined to speak about his arrest, saying only that they were shocked and did not want to talk about a good friend facing a bad situation.
Cabbab was a member of the 1988 Kamehameha Schools state championship baseball team that finished the season 22-3. After graduating from Kamehameha, Cabbab played UH baseball from 1989 to 1992. Cabbab's father died during his senior season, which Cabbab dedicated to his father.
On Feb. 24, the first weekend after his father died, Cabbab hit a 400-foot home run in a loss to Fresno State. In one of the season's most memorable moments, Cabbab pointed to the sky as he rounded the bases.
Advertiser Courts Writer Ken Kobayashi contributed to this report. Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.
