Agency questioned on hiring procedures

A state senator is raising questions about the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ employment practices after the agency hired an officer who had been fired about a year earlier from the Honolulu Police Department and was arrested last week on allegations he sexually assaulted a female minor while on the job.

Hilo resident Ethan Ferguson, 39, an officer with DLNR’s Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement, is on leave with pay pending resolution of the criminal case, according to the department.

The victim told police that a DLNR officer in uniform approached her at a Hilo beach park and sexually assaulted her Jan. 1.

Police last week arrested Ferguson and charged him with two counts of second-degree sexual assault and three counts of fourth-degree sexual assault.

Ferguson was a Honolulu police officer from 2000 until February 2012, when he was discharged, according to an HPD spokeswoman. She declined to say what he was fired for.

But a December 2013 HPD report to the Legislature on discipline cases noted that an officer — without identifying the person — was fired for transporting a juvenile female runaway without a supervisor’s authorization and was untruthful during the investigation. It also noted that the officer “altered another officer’s name and badge number in a police log book and submitted a falsified mileage record.”

A source confirmed the case described Ferguson’s discharge. But the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, in checking with the prosecutor’s office and court records, could find no criminal charges resulting from the HPD case.

Sen. Will Espero, Senate vice president, on Monday emailed DLNR Director Suzanne Case to ask what background check her agency did prior to hiring Ferguson and whether that included checking with HPD.

Deborah Ward, a DLNR spokeswoman, said in an email that the agency is reviewing its records to determine what steps were taken in the hiring process and “to verify what information was provided to us.”

She noted that selected job candidates are subjected to criminal background checks using systems that track state cases. Candidates for law enforcement positions with the conservation division additionally are subjected to checks using systems that cover criminal records nationally, according to Ward.

She said the department will conduct its own investigation and “may be limited in the information it can release so as not to frustrate that investigation.” She said previously that the agency will cooperate with the police probe on Hawaii island.

Even though media reports have mentioned Ferguson’s firing from HPD, Espero said he had yet to get official confirmation by Monday afternoon that the DLNR officer was the same person.

Assuming he is, “there certainly is a disconnect or problem here,” Espero said, adding that either DLNR failed to do a sufficient background check or information about Ferguson’s firing was not passed along to the state.

Espero said he plans to introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session requiring the state and counties to maintain a database of law enforcement officers fired from public agencies in Hawaii.

DLNR’s enforcement officers have full police powers and carry weapons. Ferguson joined the department in June 2013, according to DLNR.