Man indicted in 2008 hit-run fatality

An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment yesterday charging a 39-year-old Waialua man for failing to render aid in a hit-and-run traffic fatality near Dole Plantation two years ago.

Police arrested Arnel Abuluyan in 2008 but released him as they conducted their investigation.

David Aldridge Jr., 18, was riding his bicycle home from work along Kamehameha Highway on July 22, 2008, when a speeding vehicle struck him from behind.

Abuluyan was driving a van owned by his employer when he said he thought he struck something but did not stop. The state said he had been drinking.

Policeman is accused of sex assault

A Honolulu police officer is free on $50,000 bail after he was arrested yesterday on a charge of sexually assaulting a prostitute.

An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment yesterday charging Michael Tarmoun, 37, with second-degree sexual assault. Tarmoun turned himself in later at Honolulu Police Department headquarters and posted bail.

The state says Tarmoun picked up a prostitute in Waikiki on July 19 after she agreed to have sex with him for money. He then took her to a girlfriend’s apartment, said Vickie Kapp, deputy prosecutor.

Tarmoun was not wearing his uniform, but the prostitute asked him whether he was a police officer because of the way he dressed, Kapp said. When Tarmoun confirmed that he was a police officer, the prostitute refused to go through with their agreement and asked him to arrest her.

Instead, Kapp said, Tarmoun forced her to have sex with him, then refused to pay her.

HPD took away Tarmoun’s police powers and reassigned him to desk duty while it investigated the case, a department spokeswoman said.

Tarmoun has been with HPD for two years.

He has a 2003 DUI conviction and one in 2009 for violating a protective order, Kapp said.

Accused robber claimed family woes

A 44-year-old Kaimuki man who allegedly robbed two banks last month claimed he needed money to free his family, police said.

On July 28 a robber fled with cash from a Kahala bank after presenting a note demanding money, police said.

Two days later a robber told a teller at a Manoa bank that he needed money because "his family was being held," police said. He demanded money and fled with cash, police said.

Tips led detectives to a suspect whom witnesses identified in photographs. The man was already in police custody on suspicion of an unrelated robbery when he was arrested Wednesday morning in connection with the bank robberies.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Big Isle man is indicted in kidnapping

An Oahu grand jury added robbery, assault and two more kidnapping charges against a Big Island man accused of abducting and holding hostage two other men during the weekend.

The indictment charges John Zachary Katsu Toyofuku, 29, of Puako with first-degree assault, second-degree robbery, using a firearm to commit a separate felony and four counts of kidnapping.

Circuit Judge Richard Perkins doubled Toyofuku’s bail to $150,000.

Toyofuku, along with three or four other men, first abducted a 24-year-old Windward Oahu man on Friday and took him to a house in Lanikai, where they kept him for 30 hours, said Vickie Kapp, deputy prosecutor.

She said Toyofuku wielded a handgun, and he and his cohorts handcuffed, shackled, blindfolded, gagged, punched, kicked and threatened to kill the man until he agreed to lure another Windward Oahu man to the house.

When the second man, 33, arrived Sunday, he was kicked, punched, beaten with a baseball bat and gun and threatened with death if he did not give the captors money, Kapp said.

As Toyofuku and his accomplices were driving the two men to Kaaawa in a van, one of them escaped.

Kapp said a police officer witnessed the escape. The officer, who was off duty at the time, saw Toyofuku and another man shove the man back into the van and drive away with Toyofuku behind the wheel. The officer ordered Toyofuku to pull over, but he refused.

As the officer was calling for assistance, police said, he saw one of the captives fall from the back of the moving