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The last moments of a California municipal attorney’s life came more clearly into focus Wednesday with accounts from witnesses in a Maui police affidavit.
Maui resident Janet Brockmann told police she saw a man dragging a woman toward the cliffs of north Maui on Sept. 1.
The woman was yelling for help, and Brockman began demanding that the man stop.
"We are OK," he assured her, according to the affidavit filed in Wailuku District Court.
The woman broke free, but the man violently grabbed her by the neck and tossed her onto rocks, Brockmann recounted in the document.
She lost sight of them when they went into the brush area, the affidavit said.
Brockmann said the woman dropped a camera, an inhalation device and a set of car keys, which Brockmann picked up. She then left the area to call for help because she didn’t have a cell phone.
Brockmann’s account details the killing of Celestial S.D. Cassman, 35, an attorney who lived in Santa Cruz, Calif. Cassman’s body was found at the base of the cliff at Nakalele Point about 7:30 p.m. Sept. 1.
Gerald W. Galaway Jr., 38, also of Santa Cruz, was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail and charged with second-degree murder and kidnapping in her death.
Cassman and Galaway had been staying in the same hotel room in Kaanapali since Aug. 31, and police described the incident as domestic.
Two other witnesses said they saw a man and woman struggling in a moving vehicle, according to the affidavit.
» California resident David Hatton told police he was driving on Honoapiilani Highway about 6:20 p.m. when he saw a speeding vehicle behind him swerving on Kahekili Highway. Hatton said looking through the rear view mirror, he noticed the vehicle’s passenger door was ajar and the female passenger was trying to get out of the vehicle while it was in motion.
He said the vehicle made a U-turn to go in the other direction, and he used his cell phone to call a police dispatcher but reception was poor.
Hatton said he turned around but didn’t notice the vehicle on his way back to the hotel. He said he made another call to police, after seeing a patrol vehicle.
» California resident Larry D. Giles, approached by Brockmann to call police, said that 10 to 15 minutes earlier he had seen a speeding vehicle in which a man was choking a woman.
Police said officers were sent as soon as they received Hatton’s call. Police said as the officers drove toward Nakalele, the response was upgraded to an "emergency" after Brockmann called about a man dragging the woman toward the cliff.
Police said officers saw Galaway running down a hillside toward the cliffs.
Officers said despite ordering him to stop, Galaway, who was wearing a shirt but no shorts or pants, jumped off a 100-foot cliff into the ocean.
Galaway was arrested near the ocean and cliffs the next day. He had been injured and was being held under police guard at Maui Memorial Hospital.
Galaway’s attorney, William Sloper, was unavailable for comment.
Cassman was born in Hawaii, according to the Santa Cruz Lake County Bee-Record newspaper. She graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 1998 before attending law school at UC Davis, according to the website of the nonprofit Santa Cruz group, CASA, where Cassman served as a director.
According to KION News, Cassman sent a text message to a friend in Santa Cruz, calling Maui "fabulous" just one day before she was found dead.
Cassman worked for a Santa Cruz law firm providing legal services to several cities.
Santa Cruz City Attorney John Barisone said in a statement on Tuesday that Cassman’s death is "incalculable."
"As a beloved and integral member of our firm and more importantly a dear friend to all of us, she will be missed by all of us," he added.
The law firm declined comment.
The website for Atchison, Barisone, Condotti & Kovacevich, where Cassman worked, said she was admitted to the California State Bar in 2004. Her practice included public and municipal law. In law school, Cassman completed a public interest fellowship with Legal Services of Northern California, where she assisted indigent clients with housing, benefits and employment matters.
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