About 6 a.m. on Nov. 2, 2012, some 30 Honolulu police officers armed with rifles, handguns and shields broke down the side door of Kaneohe resident Paul Tam’s home and searched for marijuana plants that officers claimed to have seen from a helicopter.
After going through two houses on the property for about two hours destroying lights, doors and personal property, and ordering residents to lie face down on the ground, the officers discovered the suspected marijuana was actually a cluster of bamboo trees.
That case, resolved for $70,000, was among several that the Honolulu City Council unanimously agreed to settle Wednesday at a cost of $3.67 million to taxpayers.
Other settlements included:
» $1.4 million for the family of Aaron Torres, who was suffocated by three police officers during an arrest in 2012.
» $1.25 million for Paula Harris, who lost her right foot in a garbage truck incident.
» $950,000 for Qing Yu Chen, who was hit in a crosswalk by a police officer driving a subsidized vehicle.
City Councilman Ron Menor, chairman of the Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee, said in a statement that the Council reluctantly approved the large settlements because the city’s legal adviser, the Department of Corporation Counsel, recommended it.
"It was (corporation counsel’s) position that the city needed to settle because the city could face far greater liability and wind up paying more if we proceeded to litigation," he said.
He said the Corporation Counsel Department believes certain employees were "clearly engaged in wrongful and negligent conduct," causing substantial damages.
First Deputy Corporation Counsel Sheryl Nicholson said in an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the settlements were reasonable and in the best interest of the city after considering the claims, the circumstances, and the costs and risks of litigating.
"Where the case reveals the need for change or measures to avoid similar incidents from occurring, the city will make every effort to implement those changes," she said, adding that changes may take the form of additional training, counseling, creating new policies or changing old ones.
Daphne Barbee-Wooten, who represented Aaron Torres’ sister, Tassa Torres, in a federal case against the city, said her client was thankful to resolve the matter and avoid trial. She said the settlement will be divided among Torres’ widow, sister and brother, who all filed claims against the city.
According to the lawsuits against the city, family members watched as three officers sat on Torres while he was face down, handcuffed and shackled, applying pressure to his back, body, legs and neck. Officers ignored family members’ pleas to get off Torres, who was crying out in pain. When officers realized that the 5-foot, 3-inch Torres was unresponsive, they called an ambulance and tried to resuscitate him.
The Medical Examiner’s Office said Torres suffocated. The office also said it found cocaine in Torres’ blood and that a contributing cause and significant condition in the Feb. 20, 2012, death was Torres’ history of cocaine abuse.
Police said that when officers arrived, they found Torres to be mentally unstable and possibly under the influence of drugs.
Barbee-Wooten said Torres was the one who called police and may have been having a delusion. She said Torres had no weapons or criminal history. "There really was no need to have three police officers jump him like that," she said.
A Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman said an internal investigation was conducted in the Torres case, but the results of the investigation and any disciplinary actions are confidential.
Barbee-Wooten hopes HPD implements better procedures or training for handling people who are confused or delusional. Other law enforcement departments call in experts to talk excited people down rather than restraining them, she said.
"It’s a tragic lesson to learn, but I hope police officers realize that force isn’t the best way to handle a situation where there is no violence involved," she said. "Hopefully, this case sends that message."
On April 13, 2012, garbage truck driver Travis Kamakele was turning right from Queen Emma Street when he ran over the right foot of Paula Harris, who was walking in a crosswalk on Vineyard Boulevard with the correct signal. Harris, a real estate consultant, sued the city for negligence in August 2012.
The city said Kamakele is still working for the Refuse Division and continues to drive a refuse truck.
About 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 23, 2011, Qing Yu Chen was in a crosswalk at North School and Pohaku streets when she was struck by a police sergeant driving a Nissan Altima subsidized by the city. Her attorney, James Leavitt, said the officer was traveling about 30 mph and didn’t see Chen, who was permanently injured. The officer was not on duty at the time, but a judge found he was acting in the scope of his duties.
In the case of Tam, the Kaneohe resident, Megan Kau, Tam’s attorney, said she had to persuade Tam to take the settlement to avoid the stress of a trial even though he likely would have won a much higher award.
"They’re very upset about what happened," Kau said. "My clients did nothing wrong." She said Paul Tam has lived in Kaneohe for more than 30 years, knows everyone, and is like the "mayor of Kaneohe."
"He’s very friendly," she said. "When his neighbors saw this … they just started thinking, ‘What is he doing?’ His reputation is tarnished and that to him is a very big deal."
She said HPD could have knocked on his door and asked to enter, especially because no one in the home has a criminal history, or officers could have used binoculars to see whether the plants were marijuana.
Nicholson said the erroneous raid was an unusual occurrence in which the officers "genuinely but mistakenly" believed that they saw marijuana in the yard.
An HPD spokeswoman said the officers in all three cases are still with the department.
Menor said Council members are troubled that so much money is being used on settlements instead of programs and services. He said committee members urged city officials to discipline those involved.
"We recommend," Menor said, "that these agencies need to develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure that these kinds of wrongful acts by city employees will not occur again."
