Newswatch
That is the contention of attorney William Bagasol, who is defending Rodney Gamble, 26, accused of second-degree murder of his daughter, Monique.
Also on trial for second-degree murder is his wife, Leonora, 32.
Opening arguments before a jury began this morning before Circuit Judge Bambi Weil.
Monique Gamble died on May 2, 1994. An autopsy showed she had several broken ribs, a broken leg and bleeding inside her skull.
Bagasol said a baby sitter admitted to the parents that she had abused the infant.
He said the sitter killed herself six months after the infant died.
A police officer acting on an anonymous tip today located two 5-by-7 signs stolen Sunday night from the Haleiwa Bypass.
The signs were found in brush on Kawailoa Drive, about one-tenth of a mile off Kamehameha Highway in Haleiwa, just down the road from where one of the signs was taken, said Wahiawa Sgt. Fay Tamura. "It was too hot of an item to keep," she said.
The brightly painted signs were mud- and grass-stained, but intact.
Police were tipped to their location by an anonymous male who called the Wahiawa Police Station just before 6 a.m. today. Police suspect the signs were put on Kawailoa Drive very recently.
But though officials say the state was up to date on Medicaid payments as of July 12, more trouble looms.
Payments for last year's bills are coming out of this year's budget so "the state is automatically in the hole," pointed out Richard E. Meiers, Healthcare Association of Hawaii president and chief executive officer.
Delinquent Medicaid bills in 1995-96 totaled about $60 million. The state's share is half that, matched by federal money.
The agency ran out of Medicaid money in March, largely because of high costs in the fee-for-service program for about 30,000 aged, blind and disabled people.
Iwalani Laybon yesterday filed a suit in federal court, alleging that officials at Halawa Correctional Facility illegally searched them, violated their due process and subjected them to cruel and unusual punishment.
She asked for general damages in excess of $500,000 and special damages and punitive damages of not less than $500,000.
State Department of Public Safety officials could not be reached for comment.
Laybon said that on Aug. 17 guards "pat-searched" other visitors, but segregated her and her two sons for a strip search.
Laybon, in a suit filed by attorney T. Stephen Leong, said she did not want to lose privileges to visit inmate Frank "Mark" Abreau, the father of one child.
A boy died at the scene of a single-car crash near Waikele Center just before 2 a.m. today. Two other boys in the car, 15 and 17, were flown to Queen's Hospital in critical condition. The car apparently hit a utility pole at Lumiaina and Pulelo streets, police said.
Just after 5 a.m. today, a 91-year-old pedestrian was struck by a car on Liliha Street near the Koko Head-bound H-1 offramp. He was in critical condition at Queen's Hospital.
In Kailua last night, a 30-year-old motorcyclist died of massive head injuries after he plowed into the back of a semitractor trailer on Kalanianaole Highway above the Kailua Drive-In, police said. He was pronounced dead at Castle Hospital at 12:06 a.m. today.
The crash occurred as the Kaneohe man tried to overtake a car at 11:40 p.m.
The motorcyclist was not wearing a helmet, police said.
The 28-year-old man driving the semi was not injured.
Two firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion near the south Maui fire, and a third was treated at Maui Memorial Hospital for a back injury yesterday.
Tenants at 3408 Hookipa Place said the fire started in a bedroom of the house owned by a California resident.
Firefighters received the call about 11 a.m., had the fire under control by 12:19 p.m. and extinguished by 5:03 p.m., Assistant Fire Chief Clayton Ishikawa said.
He said the fire burned roofs of a couple of nearby residences.
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