Alleged arsonist, abuser turns himself in
Police arrested a 35-year-old man who allegedly set fire to his Makakilo townhouse last month after a violent argument with his wife. No one was injured in the Feb. 18 blaze, which caused about $150,000 in damage to a townhouse unit at Palehua Gardens. Police arrested the suspect for investigation of first-degree arson and abuse of a family member after he turned himself in Wednesday.
Ex-police commissioner halted fight
A former Honolulu police commissioner who is a deputy sheriff on the mainland stopped the fight Wednesday at Kamamalu Park in which a homeless man allegedly attacked another man with a meat cleaver.
The suspect was arrested on suspicion of second-degree attempted murder. Police said the suspect grabbed a meat cleaver and told the victim several times that he was going to kill him. The suspect then allegedly struck the victim in the head, and the off-duty deputy sheriff, Mark Hunsaker, intervened. The victim was taken to the Queen’s Medical Center, where he was released in fair condition, police said.
Hunsaker, who was on the police commission from 2006 to 2009, works as a Honolulu accountant and as a deputy sheriff in Chautauqua County, Kan.
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
FBI arrests Kauai woman
FBI agents arrested a Kapaa woman Thursday on charges that she stole a total of about $24,700 from two accounts at the Kauai Teachers Federal Credit Union, where she worked.
Kerry K. Higashi, 31, made her initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Honolulu on Thursday afternoon and was released pending trial.
According to a federal grand jury indictment, Higashi embezzled money from two customer accounts from Oct. 7, 2009, through May 30, 2011. She took $19,821 from the account of one person and about $4,900 from another’s.
The maximum penalty for embezzlement from a federal credit union is 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
