2 officers are no longer with HPD after alleged misconduct

Two police officers who were placed on restricted duty for alleged misconduct are no longer with the Hono­­lulu Police Department.

The department says the last days of employment for Anson Kimura, 56, and Kramer Aoki, 35, were in mid-May.

Kimura, who was a police sergeant and 25-year veteran of HPD, retired.

Aoki’s lawyer, Thomas Otake, says Aoki was fired.

The department placed Kimura on restricted duty after he allegedly shot and wounded a 40-year-old female employee of a South King Street bar April 3 while off duty. The woman suffered a gunshot wound to her stomach.

Police said Kimura and the woman are friends and that the gun that injured her went off accidentally. The department declined to say whether the firearm was Kimura’s service weapon.

HPD classified the incident as a second-degree assault and forwarded the case this week to prosecutors for charging. Second-degree assault is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Kimura avoided disciplinary action because he retired before HPD completed its internal investigation.

The department placed Aoki on restricted duty for allegedly groping a teenage girl after stopping her for speeding Sept. 6. He let the girl go with a warning.

An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment in November charging Aoki with third-degree sexual assault for knowingly subjecting a person in custody to sexual contact. Sexual assault in the third degree is also a Class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

In January a state judge dismissed the case because he ruled that stopping someone for a traffic violation is not the same as placing the person in custody.

The prosecutor recharged Aoki days after his firing with fourth-degree sexual assault, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

At his arraignment in Hono­­lulu District Court last month, Aoki asked for a trial by jury. That sent the case to state Circuit Court, where a judge scheduled Aoki’s trial for Aug. 31.