A 28-year-old Chinatown man, awaiting trial on accusations of breaking a police officer’s nose, was arrested Monday after threatening to beat up his ex-girlfriend if she testified against him in the case.
He was booked at about 5:10 p.m. Monday on suspicion of intimidating a witness, first-degree terroristic threatening and a $50,000 contempt warrant. The man was released pending further investigation.
The suspect is awaiting trial for second-degree theft, first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest, stemming from an August 2014 case.
Police said that on Nov. 14, two days before the man’s trial was scheduled to start, he called his 23-year-old ex-girlfriend and threatened to beat her up if she refused to change her statement in the trial.
The trial was postponed at the request of the public defender, and a judge issued a $50,000 bench warrant Nov. 23 when the defendant failed to appear for a court hearing, court records show.
The man’s ex-girlfriend reported he arrived at her workplace at the University of Hawaii on Aug. 31, 2014, grabbed her left arm while she was on the phone, removed her gold Hawaiian bracelet and fled, a police affidavit filed in Honolulu District Court says.
Police found the suspect that night in the parking lot of Longs Drugs on Pali Highway, and while an officer was conducting a pat-down, the man punched the officer twice in the face, breaking his nose, the affidavit says.
Police said the man pushed, rocked and bumped officers off him in an attempt to flee while he was handcuffed.
Officers recovered the stolen bracelet from the suspect’s left arm.
