Updated at 8:14 p.m., Sunday, August 19, 2007
Theft suspect alleged victim in debt-collection probes
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
Three men have been arrested and released peding further investigation in the case.
Two men, ages 27 and 19, were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of trying to collect $20,000 from Francis X. Blackwell, 59, at 420 Ward Ave. Another man, 37, was arrested at Aloha Tower Marketplace Thursday on suspicion of taking a handbag and kicking a parked car during a confrontation with Blackwell over a debt.
Blackwell, who has no permanent local address, was featured in a Honolulu CrimeStoppers bulletin this month as someone police sought to question in a theft investigation of $50,500 worth of artworks from Island Art Galleries at Aloha Tower Marketplace.
Blackwell formerly worked as director of the gallery at Aloha Tower Marketplace.
Blackwell was tracked to a Kapolei residence Monday and arrested on suspicion of first-degree theft. He was released pending further investigation on Wednesday, shortly before the first incident on Ward Avenue occurred.
The debt collection incidents are not connected to the art-theft case, police said, but to monies owed to separate individuals.
