Homeless man charged in stabbing

Prosecutors charged a 57-year-old homeless man Tuesday with second-degree attempted murder for allegedly stabbing a man in Whitmore Village on Sunday night.

Dante A. Ilaban was being held in lieu of $15,000 bail.

A good Samaritan brought the 65-year-old victim with multiple stab wounds to Wahiawa General Hospital on Sunday, and he was rushed to the Queen’s Medical Center for emergency surgery, police said.

The victim told police that the man who stabbed him at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday was an acquaintance. Shortly afterward, Ilaban called 911 and surrendered to police.

Ilaban was convicted in 2006 of possession of a prohibited gaff, a petty misdemeanor, and fined $250. He was also convicted of the same charge, as well as misdemeanor cruelty to animals in 1982, and fined $25 for each.

No injuries in Nanakuli conflagration

Honolulu firefighters put out a blaze in a Garden Groves townhouse in Nanakuli last night.

The two-alarm fire was reported at 87-1550 Farrington Highway just before 6:30 p.m. Firefighters pronounced it extinguished at 6:48 p.m. No one was injured.

Ex-officer accused of sex assault

A 33-year-old former Maui police officer has been charged with sexually assaulting a man while on duty in Kihei last year, and with assault and impersonating a police officer in connection with another incident involving the same victim.

Lewis Gamble, who joined the Maui Police Department in 2005, was arrested Tuesday on a bench warrant after he was indicted by  a grand jury and charged with four criminal counts.

Police said two of the charges, sexual assault in the first degree and kidnapping, stem from a March 9, 2009, incident while Gamble was on the job in Kihei.

Then on March 29, Gamble was involved in a confrontation which led to a fight, police said. He was charged with third-degree assault, impersonating a police officer and false reporting. Police declined to give details.

The Maui News reported that a 41-year-old man reported being sexually assaulted by Gamble in early March last year after Gamble responded to the man’s home in Kihei to investigate a burglary report. The man said Gamble, then a Kihei patrol officer, was in uniform and carrying a gun.

The man also reported being chased and tackled by Gamble three weeks later in Wailuku town.

Gamble was fired from the Maui Police Department in October, said Maui Lt. Wayne Ibarra. Maui officials declined to discuss specifics of the charges and the reasons for his dismissal. He is free on $250,000 bail.