The city has agreed to pay $1 million to the survivors of a man who died in 2013 after he was handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a Honolulu police officer responding to a report that the owner of a stolen pickup truck had located his vehicle.
The Honolulu City Council’s Committee on Executive Matters and Legal Affairs approved the payment last week.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner says Stephen Dinnan, 35, suffocated from being pinned to the ground. The autopsy also listed a neck injury as a significant condition.
Dinnan was unconscious and in critical condition when an ambulance took him to the hospital on June 3, 2013, from outside a home in Waimanalo. Dinnan died June 4 after doctors declared him brain dead and removed him from life support.
His parents, siblings, minor children and the mothers of the children filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2014 against the city, the police officer and the truck owner. They claim that the police officer had no reason to handcuff Dinnan and pin him to the ground because Dinnan had nothing to do with the stolen pickup truck.
According to the lawsuit, the truck owner, off-duty Honolulu firefighter Nolan Hanohano, reported to police that his vehicle was stolen from Makapuu Beach Park while his son was surfing, and that he tracked the location of a cellphone that was in the pickup to a home in Waimanalo. Hanohano led officer Eric Matsumoto to the home.
When Hanohano and Matsumoto arrived, Dinnan and two other men fled. Matsumoto detained one of the men, then went after Dinnan. The lawsuit says as Matsumoto was unsuccessfully trying to get Dinnan to let go of the home’s front door stair railing, Hanohano choked Dinnan, fracturing his windpipe.
Dinnan let go of the railing and, after another struggle on the ground, Matsumoto cuffed Dinnan. Even though Dinnan was lying face down on the ground with his hands behind his back, Matsumoto remained on top of him and continued to push his knee in the middle of Dinnan’s back, near the base of the neck, until Dinnan stopped breathing, the lawsuit says.
The police department says it placed Matsumoto, a 29-year police veteran, on restricted duty following Dinnan’s death, but has since returned him to full duty. City lawyers defended Matsumoto against the lawsuit and the $1 million clears him of any liability.
Hanohano’s insurance company paid for his lawyers. His portion of the mediated agreement remains confidential.
Neither Matsumoto nor Hanohano has been charged with any crimes.
