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HONOLULU POLICE DEPARTMENT
Brent K. Sylvester
A state judge has permanently dismissed drunken driving and hit-and-run charges against Honolulu police officer Brent Sylvester because the prosecutor had been unable to present certain key witnesses to testify against Sylvester in court.
Sylvester was supposed to stand trial in Kaneohe District Court on Tuesday for operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant and for leaving the scene of a traffic accident that resulted in injury. The prosecutor asked the judge to rescheduled the trial because the state had been unable to locate the occupants of the other car involved in the accident. The judge refused the request and dismissed the case with no opportunity for recharging.
Sylvester was facing up to a year in jail and $2,000 fine for the hit-and-run, and a jail term of between two and five days, fine of between $150 and $1,000 and one-year license revocation for drunken driving. His driver’s license has already been administratively revoked for two years for refusing to submit to an alcohol test. Sylvester is challenging the revocation.
Tuesday was the second time the prosecutor had asked to postpone the trial because of the unavailability of the witnesses. The trial was originally scheduled for Aug. 30.
The prosecutor said he believes the witnesses are avoiding getting served with subpoenas to testify.
The driver of the other car involved in the collision told police he was hesitant to call them when his car was rear-ended on the H-1 freeway because he had only a learner’s permit and that neither of the other two occupants in the vehicle was a licensed driver.
The driver and his two passengers told police they were traveling east near the Aiea off ramp the early-morning of April 3 when Sylvester’s car rear-ended theirs. They said Sylvester fled and that they followed him to Sylvester’s house in Kailua. They told police when they confronted Sylvester outside his home he smelled of alcohol, his speech was slurred and he could not stand up straight or walk steadily. The driver and his front seat passenger said they suffered neck injuries from the accident.
State law requires law enforcement officers to test the breath, blood or urine of drivers involved in crashes that result in death or injury. Sylvester, a 13-year Honolulu Police Department veteran who worked in the department’s Traffic Division, refused to be tested and his fellow officers did not force him. The department reassigned Sylvester to desk duty following his arrest.
This officer openly flouts the same state law he is entrusted with enforcing by refusing to be tested and now gets off completely due to missing witnesses, how convenient. Obviously Kaneshiro doesn’t want to prosecute this cop. It seems the only way a cop gets held accountable in Hawaii is if the Federal prosecutors get involved. Kaneshiro is truly the worse prosecutor Hawaii has ever seen.
Kaneshiro is up for re-election in November.
So if a police officer gets into an accident and he is required to take a breath/urine test and refuses he gets to keep his job? Sweet.
It’s called corruption. The rot starts at the top of HPD and flows down to all levels.
Who says there’s no such thing as a “Get Out of Jail Free” card?
Who’s the judge?
Who’s the plaintiff and why would they refuse to appear? If the Prosecution had a solid case and had done their homework, it would have gone forward. Remember, the burden of proof is on the prosecution. If they cannot fulfill that requirement, the defendant must be presumed not guilty. and bahIggins, presumably you had a course in high school called PiD. Perhaps you should have paid attention.
I never went to high school……………
A pity…
Or did HPD get to the witness and convince them it would be better for their health to disappear?
Cop dodged a bullet. Back to duty interacting with the public with a GUN and a badge. Not even a blip on his record. What about his fellow cover up cops that never made him test???
Hope I’m nowhere near this Keystone Kop next time he goes out on a bender…
“A state judge has permanently dismissed drunken driving and hit-and-run charges against Honolulu police officer Brent Sylvester because the prosecutor had been unable to present certain key witnesses to testify against Sylvester in court.”>>> WOW. JUST when I think the incompetence can’t get any worse…BAM!
And haven’t heard of any internal investigation either.
The Judge was right! As much as I feel he is guilty, if no one testifies, nothing happened. HPD has handled this correctly by assigning him to the Desk. HPD will do their due diligence and abiding by the Officer’s rights. SHOPO has laid back but now are in position to defend him. He’s back on th road in 90 days!
CERTAINLY is still enough there to dismiss him from his job. AND WHY has this rag of a newspaper gone OUT of their way to NOT say…WHAT…Judge?
“The driver and his front seat passenger said they suffered neck injuries from the accident.” – These people in the car that was rear-ended are not too smart. They now have to pay for the injuries and may even have permanent neck damage. In addition, they could have sued the officer and the HPD and the CITY (big bucks there). Now they are out of luck for anything but ridicule.
Shame on those witnesses for not coming forward.
Wouldn’t it be nice to see the police reprimand records to see what to the officers who did not do their job, did not follow procedure? If you make it a situation where the arresting officers either do their job or lose their job, this sort of shenanigans might be mitigated. All I ask is equal enforcement of the law. He actually hit someone when he was drunk…well, I guess he didn’t since there are no witnesses. So, he was arrested for drunk driving…oh, wait, there was no physical evidence, only observational. He was tired and had used hand sanitizer. This is disappointing. Whatever, the cops that came to my house were awesome and professional, but this circumstance stinks.
The police department will do an administrative review to determine if he violated HPD’s Standards of Conduct and determine what type of disciplinary action will be taken against him…..hopefully the department will terminate his employment ……
Google “Stephen Dinnan, Waimanalo”.
We should start a weekly feature and call it “HPD’s Officer of the Week”. It seems that criminal and unethical conduct are so well entrenched in the department that there seems to be an unending parade of HPD officers running afoul of the law weekly. I lost respect and support for this den of thieves long ago, having previously been a strong supporter. But one can only watch the incidents of misconduct for so many DECADES before being forced to admit the obvious. Who’s up next?
Fire the Prosecutor, the Chief of Police and the alcoholic cop, NEXT!
right on pocho….show you right
One reason to hold a speedy rrial in cases like this: Less time to intimidate victims and witnesses.
Lousy reporting by Nelson Daranciang, who was the judge and who was the prosecutor of the case. how can you write the story if you dont even know who was the prosecutor and judge. Unless you got it from channel 2 news.