Tiffini Hercules said nothing to the judge as she stood in District Court on drug charges today. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

Hercules is charged with promoting a dangerous drug in the second degree for allegedly dealing ice, or crystal methamphetamine in her Kailua neighborhood.

When it was over, Hercules shuffled out of the courtroom and her family, declining comment, stalked off.

Hercules was the president of her class at Kalaheo High School for four years, an intelligent beauty queen whose work in the classroom had earned her a college scholarship.

She was slated for success and "full of aloha," a former teacher said. The 1992 Kalaheo graduate was a leader who spoke to the incoming crop of Kalaheo freshmen in 1998.

But Tuesday, the winner of the 1998 Miss Hawai'i USA pageant and her husband, John Limahai Jr., were arrested in a crystal methamphetamine raid by Honolulu police.

Hercules was charged yesterday and the Class B felony is punishable by up to 10 years in jail. She also was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, a Class C felony that carries a possible five-year sentence.

Tiffini Hercules' high school picture.

"You think of a beauty queen, you think of success," said Honolulu Police Department Lt. John McCarthy. "You have someone who had success handed to them, and she crashed."

The arrest of the former Miss Hawaii USA comes amid what has been called an ice epidemic, with a rising number of deaths and criminal cases related to the drug. The devastating effects of ice on families has spurred whole communities to try to bring the problem under control.

Law enforcement officials and community activists stress that the problem has gotten worse, and increased community education and awareness are needed.

Police said Tuesday's arrest appeared to be the low point of a downward spiral for Hercules, whom they said had been using ice for more than three years. She was arrested with roughly a quarter ounce of the drug, which carries a street value of more than $1,000, police said.

Before her arrest, Hercules, who celebrated her 30th birthday yesterday, was a target of a three-month investigation by crime-reduction officers in Kailua. Police said Hercules had graduated recently from ice user to ice dealer, and she was known to patrol officers in the area.

One of her teachers from her freshman year of high school expressed shock yesterday and said she was saddened by the news of Hercules' arrest.

Karen Kanda, vice principal of Kalaheo High School, said Hercules was a model student who the school had held up as an example of what focus and hard work could get you.

In August 1998, Hercules and former Kalaheo and University of Hawai'i basketball star Alika Smith addressed the incoming freshman class.

Kanda said Hercules was an excellent student with good grades, earning an academic scholarship to attend Dominican College in New York.

"I was devastated by the news; she was really a girl with potential," Kanda said. "She was a young lady who was tall, thin, beautiful, focused, conscientious; what can I say? We are disappointed at what happened in her life, because she has not actualized her potential for success."

Drug-prevention advocates said yesterday the arrest shows how indiscriminate and pervasive ice use is.

Jeff Mueller, co-producer with Edgy Lee of "Life or Meth: Hawai'i's Youth," which will be simulcast on all major networks Dec. 7, said ice knows no socio-economic boundaries and that people who pick up the drug never realize what they are getting into.

Alan Shinn, executive director of the Coalition for a Drug Free Hawai'i, said stemming the spread of ice requires education as a part of a multifaceted approach at the community level.