Friends of former Honolulu police outreach worker and homeless advocate Sharon Black have selected a likely home for her three Great Danes after fielding more than 400 offers of help in the past week.
Black, 52, is gravely ill from what began as lung cancer and has since spread to her liver and bones.
Her dying wish has been to find her dogs a new owner who will agree to keep them together and allow them to live indoors.
Mokka, 9, and Polo, 7, and their grandson Rambo, 4, are trained therapy dogs, and Black has taken them to various Oahu care homes and hospitals in recent years to help soothe the ill.
Black was still lucid and staying in her Aiea townhouse last week when the public call to assist her dogs was made through TV news channels.
Her health deteriorated, and she returned to a hospice care facility over the weekend. She was mostly unconscious Monday, and friends said they suspect the end may soon be near.
Susan Siu, who is in charge of making arrangements for the Danes, said, "We couldn’t imagine a better home" than the home selected.
Al Perkins, another friend, has taken over operating Black’s Kau Kau Wagon, which has provided free meals for the homeless in Chinatown once a week for more than 20 years. The program is run entirely through donations and receives no government subsidies.
The Kau Kau Wagon gatherings have continued even though Black has not attended in recent months.
"The Kau Kau Wagon will continue as long as we can keep it going," he said.
Donations to the wagon can be sent to the Aloha Pacific Federal Credit Union.
Black has been a controversial figure over the years.
A civilian outreach worker for the Honolulu Police Department since 1992, Black was denied medical insurance from the city after she was terminated in 2009.
Black and her supporters said medical treatment could have prolonged her life if she’d had insurance earlier.
Instead, they said, she was not able to receive Medicaid coverage until January.
Black and her supporters said she was treated unfairly after she won a $612,000 settlement of a sexual harassment lawsuit against high-ranking HPD officers in 2001.
In 2006, Black was accused of accessing confidential medical examiner’s records. The 2007 criminal trial resulted in a hung jury.
In 2009, Black won a $150,000 jury award from the city for emotional damages she suffered from retaliation against her for filing the original 1997 lawsuit.
The city appealed that decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Afterward the two parties went into mediation to try to settle several lawsuits Black had filed against the city. Black declined to sign an agreement for $450,000 reached by her attorney and the city, claiming the city had already offered her $815,000 and that it did not include medical coverage.
In February, Black sued the city for wrongful termination, this time seeking reinstatement of her medical insurance and back pay.
In March the city sent her $7,653.46, which it claimed was part of a $70,000 settlement. Black has refused to cash the check.
City spokeswoman Louise Kim McCoy, in response to queries from the Star-Advertiser about Black’s claims, said Black has refused to sign a mediated settlement reached with the city.
"The Circuit Court ordered the settlement be enforced, and Ms. Black has appealed that judgment," McCoy said in an email. "Additionally, Ms. Black has now filed another suit against the city. We cannot comment on these pending matters."
