Records filed in civil court cases involving Matthew M. Higa include allegations he harassed a former workplace and that he drove into a woman riding on a bicycle.

Higa was taken into custody Thursday after allegedly throwing 23-month-old Cyrus Belt to his death from a pedestrian overpass onto H-1 Freeway.

Last year, Higa's former boss at a Papa John's Pizza store on Nu'uanu Avenue sought a restraining order against Higa because he allegedly persisted in writing bad checks to pay for nearly $2,000 in pizza orders.

Rebecca Gleason, manager of the store, said in a written statement filed with the court, "Former employee Matthew Higa has been writing bad checks for orders placed on the Internet."

When Higa was told that his checks would not be accepted, "he continued to order online with intentions of passing bad checks," Gleason wrote.

"After numerous failed attempts, he began changing his address, phone number and name to try and fool us into delivering to him," Gleason alleged.

"We have already accumulated $1,979.67 for 60 orders in four months' time, where his checks were accepted and turned out to be no good. The actual amount is higher because he wrote the checks for more than the order amount, trying to get change from the drivers," Gleason wrote.

After Higa was told in writing and verbally in November 2006 that his checks were not acceptable, Higa tried 63 times to place online pizza orders with the Nu'uanu store, attempting to pay with checks written on a closed account, Gleason alleged.

"He has also made orders to our Kapahulu, McCully, Ma-punapuna and Kapi'olani locations. All of these locations have unknowingly accepted bad checks," the statement said.

"The Kapahulu store has lost over $1,200 to Higa," Gleason alleged.

On some days, Higa would make as many as five attempts to place online food orders.

Gleason said her store delivered a pizza to Higa in January 2007 and accepted one of his checks to take the matter to the Honolulu Police Department.

A detective in "the financial fraud department" suggested that the business "seek an injunction against Higa in an attempt to stop the orders," Gleason wrote.

She attached a seven-page computer-generated list of pizza orders allegedly placed by Higa. Most were made in Higa's name, with the delivery address of a Henry Street home where Higa and his father, Shelton Higa, resided in late 2006 and 2007.

But Higa also placed orders in his father's name and in other names, supplying different call-back numbers and using slight variations on the delivery addresses, according to the court file.

On March 30, 2007, a district court judge denied the requested restraining order, saying that Higa's alleged conduct did not meet the technical legal definition of harassment.

Gleason could not be reached for comment yesterday. A store employee said she is on leave of absence.

In a lawsuit filed in 2006 in Circuit Court, a woman claimed that Higa struck her with a car in 2004 on Houghtailing Street, knocking her off her bicycle and causing serious physical injuries.

Higa's father accepted service of the lawsuit on behalf of his son at the Henry Street address in December 2006.

The lawsuit was settled out of court in September 2007.

The plaintiff in the case, Qinghua Huang, couldn't be reached for comment. The attorney for Huang, Raymond Mundo, said he never met Higa and declined to discuss the lawsuit other than to say it involved "an ordinary accident."

Police also investigated Higa in connection with a suspected racing incident on Aug. 15, 2004, that led to the death of Andrew Hansen, 20.

Hansen was driving one of three cars apparently racing on H-1. The car wrecked near the Alexander Street on-ramp and Hansen was killed.

Higa, who was driving a 2001 Acura, was questioned as part of a third-degree negligent homicide investigation, but charges were not pursued.

The third car involved fled the scene.

Staff writer Peter Boylan contributed to this report.

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.