Leilani Estates residents’ lawsuit aims to force county, feds to maintain roadblock

Leilani Estates homeowners are asking the federal courts to order Hawaii County officials to maintain the security checkpoint that keeps out nonresidents, and to order the Federal Emergency Management Agency to continue paying for it.

A lawyer for six residents, including the Leilani Community Association’s president, secretary and treasurer, and the association’s board filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Thursday asking for an injunction to prevent the county and FEMA from taking down the checkpoint without advance notice and a hearing.

Mayor Harry Kim said last month that the checkpoint will remain in place for at least another month while officials search for ways to give visitors a safe and legal way to see the lava field and cinder cone created during Kilauea Volcano’s latest eruption.

Default judgment given in harassment suit

A federal judge has awarded a $251,652 sexual harassment judgment against the now-defunct Snappers Sports Bar and Grill of Waikiki.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin S.C. Chang awarded the default judgment Thursday because no Snappers representative responded to the lawsuit filed in September 2017 by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of a former female employee.

According to the lawsuit, the bar’s owner, Michael Wenzel, called the employee a “slut” and “whore,” ripped the employee’s bikini top in front of patrons, told her about his sex acts with others and made lewd and degrading sexual comments about other female employees.

Wenzel could not be reached for comment.