Former organized crime figure John Kalani Lincoln arrested on traffic warrants
John Kalani Lincoln is shown in this undated mugshot from the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center.
John Kalani Lincoln, who is also an accomplished musician and song writer, plays the guitar during a news conference at his attorney's office on November 20, 1992.
A state courtroom became a battleground on July 28,1994 between an admitted murderer who said John Kalani Lincoln hired him to kill two men on Maui and Lincoln's attorney who said the murderer lacked credibility. (Photo by T. Umeda.)
John Kalani Lincoln is escorted in handcuffs in this photo from January 9, 1987. (Photo by Edwin Tanji.)
Notorious former organized crime figure John Kalani Lincoln spent Halloween night in jail after his arrest on warrants for three misdemeanor traffic violations.
Lincoln once described himself to the FBI as "an enforcer" for organized crime figures in Hawaii. He was released last year from federal prison after serving more than 11 years on drug and gun charges.
Police records show Lincoln, 65, was arrested at 1719 Nuuanu Ave. at 9 p.m. He had been cited for driving without no-fault auto insurance and a current safety sticker, and not using a booster seat for a child passenger, prosecutors said.
Lincoln told police he had no local address. He posted $875 bail this morning and was released.
Lincoln has a long criminal history.
He was acquitted for a 1978 double murder for hire trial on Maui in 1992 after his third trial. He had been found guilty twice before for the gangland-style killing of two men and severely wounding a woman.
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In his second trial, Anthony Kekona Jr., who was convicted in the murders, refused to testify against Lincoln. He told jurors in a previous trial that Lincoln hired him for the murders.
Lincoln was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison in 1994 after pleading guilty to charges of possessing and distributing crystal methamphetamine and having loaded firearms on three occasions in 1992 and 1993.
He was released in April of last year after serving a five-year term for violating the conditions of his supervisory release in June 2004.
He was arrested in December 2004 and given the five-year sentence after testing positive for morphine, methamphetamine and codeine and associating with known felons.
Prior to that sentence Lincoln served 13 years in state prison for the 1978 double murder on Maui before he was acquitted in 1992.
In 1994, a FBI agent testified in federal court that Lincoln also claimed to have extorted money for a defense fund for Charlie Stevens, an organized crime figure who died in 1999 while serving a 20-year federal sentence in Pennsylvania.
