Updated at 11:50 a.m., Friday, December 14, 2007
OHA trustee pleads not guilty to drunken driving
Advertiser Staff
Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee John Waihe'e IV pleaded not guilty this morning to a drunken driving charge.The plea was entered through Waihe'e's attorney.
A second charge of driving without insurance was dismissed.
Waihe'e was in court briefly but left before the proceedings began. He ran from news crews waiting outside court to interview him.
Waihe'e was charged in connection with a May 10 auto accident on 'Auwaiolimu Street near Punchbowl National Memorial Cemetery. The car he was driving collided with a pickup truck.
An HPD officer said in a report on the accident that when he spoke to Waihe'e, "I could smell a strong odor of an alcoholic-type beverage coming from his breath" and that Waihe'e had "red, glassy, bloodshot eyes and spoke very slowly with a slurred speech."
A later blood test allegedly showed Waihe'e was illegally impaired by alcohol at the time of the accident.
Waihe'e, 37, the son of former Gov. John Waihe'e III, was first elected to the OHA board of trustees in 2000.
