Honolulu police officer Danson Cappo pleaded no contest in Circuit Court on Monday to charges related to an assault on his former girlfriend and a man at a nightclub.
Cappo entered pleas for second-degree theft, third-degree assault, misdemeanor abuse of a family or household member and fourth-degree criminal property damage.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 18.
An Oahu grand jury indicted Cappo on Jan. 29 for second-degree theft, two counts of third-degree assault and fourth-degree criminal property damage. Second-degree theft is a Class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.
According to prosecutors, Cappo was at a nightclub March 15, 2014, when he choked a man until the man lost consciousness on the dance floor. The man had been dancing with Cappo’s ex-girlfriend.
Cappo then took the 22-year-old woman into his car and threw her cellphone out of the vehicle, prosecutors said. He allegedly assaulted her that night. In January, Cappo, a police officer for two years, had his police powers restricted, a Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman said.
Body found in overgrowth near airport
A decomposed body was found Monday near Hilo Airport.
Hawaii island police received a report at 8:27 a.m. from someone who said the body had been spotted under a makeshift shelter in overgrowth about a half-mile east of Kekuanaoa Street and Kanoelehua Avenue.
The body, police said, was in an "advanced stage of decomposition."
An autopsy will be performed Tuesday, and fingerprints and dental records will be used to determine identity.
Police have classified the case as a coroner’s inquest and ask anyone who may have seen someone riding a white bicycle into the bush area in that vicinity during late May or early June to contact Detective Clarence Davies at 961-2384 or clarence.davies@hawaiicounty.gov.
Tennessee teen injured in fall onto Maui rocks
A 13-year-old boy who was with a tour group was injured Sunday in a 15-foot fall onto jagged rocks below a waterfall along the Bamboo Forest trail on Maui.
The Maui Fire Department, which was called to the Kailua-area trail in East Maui at 11:08 a.m., said the teen, fromChattanooga, Tenn., was in good condition Sunday with "moderate" injuries.
A Kahului helicopter rescue crew located him at about 11:45 a.m. at the bottom of the second waterfall on the trail. He was conscious and speaking, the Fire Department said.
The teen was flown to a pasture near Hana Highway, where he was treated and transported to Maui Memorial Medical Center.
