Officers omitted game room attacks in reports, FBI says

The FBI says the Hono­lulu police officers under investigation for an alleged assault at an illegal gambling house lied in their reports about the incident, according to federal court records.

The court records say two people were assaulted Sept. 5 in the game room called Doc’s at 1165 Hopaka St., behind McKinley Car Wash.

The FBI says video of the incident shows what appears to be three plainclothes police officers entering the game room, at least two of them apparently wearing badges. The special agent investigating the case identifies two of the officers by their initials, V.M. and J.T., and says V.M. is assigned to the Hono­lulu Police Department’s District 5 Crime Reduction Unit in Kalihi. The third officer is unidentified.

Myles Breiner, the lawyer for one of the men allegedly assaulted in the game room, identified V.M. as Vince Morre.

A Honolulu Police Department representative said Morre is a nine-year veteran of the department.

The FBI says the video shows Morre kicking a seated game room patron in the face. Morre and the other officers then walk toward the back of the game room, apparently looking for someone.

The video then shows the person the FBI says is Morre return to the front of the room, where he kicks another seated patron and strikes him in the face with both hands. Morre then kicks the first patron in the face again, knocking the patron off his chair, the video shows.

The FBI says the video shows Morre walking away and throwing a chair at the first patron, striking him in the head.

Breiner and the FBI say the first patron needed three staples to close a wound on his head where the chair hit him.

As part of its investigation, the FBI says it obtained reports submitted by all three officers who were at the game room and HPD reports of the department’s own investigation.

The FBI says J.T. and the third officer said in their reports that they went to the game room on a tip that a forgery suspect would be there, but left without finding the suspect. The reports make no mention of the assaults.

Morre signed and dated his description of what happened in the game room four days later, the FBI says. Morre’s report does not describe hitting or kicking anyone or injuring anyone with a chair.

In his report, Morre said he threw a chair over his shoulder in frustration.

The FBI seized the laptop computer Morre used to prepare his report because it contends that Morre drafted and handed his sergeant a report on Sept. 5, then, after a discussion about its content, decided to turn in a different report four days later.

The court records indicate that the FBI is investigating whether Morre used his police powers to deprive game room patrons of their rights and whether he destroyed, altered or falsified a record in a federal investigation.

An HPD representative said he cannot comment on any ongoing investigation. But he said Morre and one of the other officers implicated in the assault are on restricted, administrative duty. The third police officer was a reserve officer whose service ended in October.