Newswatch

By Star-Bulletin Staff

Thursday, April 24, 1997

Glitch holds up fees
for DUI processing

City attorneys say a glitch has kept them from slapping processing fees on people convicted of drunken-driving for the first time.

A bill that would apply the $250 "criminal service fee" to those convicted of driving under the influence moved out of the City Council's Budget Committee yesterday.

Budget officials are banking on the money since those convicted of DUI are considered most able to pay.

So far, $4,000 has been paid by 16 of 293 people who were convicted. Officials originally projected collecting $200,000 this year from the law enacted a year ago, but have fallen far short.

Next year's budget calls for $1 million in revenues from the fee.

Part of the problem was that the prosecutors' office did not begin forwarding the addresses of convicts until mid-February when new Prosecutor Peter Carlisle ordered them sent.

Deputy Corporation Counsel Donna Woo said first-time convictions for driving under the influence are not covered because they are not misdemeanors but are in their own "special categories."

Budget Committee members criticized Mayor Jeremy Harris' administration for failing to foresee the exclusion of DUI convictions from the law.

Manoa community plans
to take bite out of crime

As criminals get bolder in Manoa Valley, so does the community.

This weekend Manoa neighborhood groups are holding a crime forum to come up with ways to reduce the valley's yearly average of 1,226 reported crimes.

Police officer Roy Nieva told residents that property crime and occasional violent crimes in the valley are "on the upswing." Criminals have gone so far as to break into an elderly woman's home while she was there and break into a parked car near a Manoa school while two children waited in the car for their parents.

Police officers and City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle will be on hand at the forum Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Manoa Elementary School. Residents will address such questions as "Should Manoa have a police substation?" and "What can senior citizens do to protect themselves?"

Drug education expert
to speak next Thursday

A visiting drug education expert who questions the effectiveness of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program will speak at 7:30 p.m. next Thursday at Roosevelt High School.

Joining Marsha Rosenbaum of the Lindesmith Center of San Francisco in a discussion and forum are Ann Horiuchi, state Department of Education comprehensive health specialist; Sandra Lacar, director, Coalition for a Drug Free Hawaii; and Harvey Lee of Pacific Regional Education Laboratory. Theresa Paulette, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, will moderate.

The free public forum is the third in a series on drug policy issues to be held throughout 1997.

See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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Police/Fire


By Star-Bulletin staff

Passenger injured
in auto crash

A 26-year-old man, airlifted to Queen's Hospital last night after he was injured in a two-car crash outside Wahiawa town, is in fair condition today.

He was a passenger in one of two cars that appeared to have been speeding on Wilikina Drive at 9:45 p.m. One of them may have cut the other off earlier, investigators said.

Police arrested one of the drivers, a 26-year-

old man from Wheeler Army Base, on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.

As the two cars were speeding down Wilikina Drive, one of the drivers -- a 19-year-old Waiawa Road man -- apparently took his eyes off the road to check his speedometer, police said.

When he looked up again, the other car was directly in front of him. The driver apparently slammed on the brakes, lost control of his car and struck a guard rail, police said. He allegedly spun out and struck the second car.

Charges filed
in hammer attack

A man who allegedly struck another man in the head with a hammer at a gambling game in Kalihi early yesterday has been charged with attempted murder.

Noberto Escalante, 36, of Kalihi, is being held on $100,000 bail.

Officers located him at a Houghtailing Street residence after he fled the game at an Ahuula Street home.

The victim, a 42-year-old man, was in critical condition at Queen's Hospital, police said.

Other Police/Fire headlines
in today’s Star-Bulletin:

• Marijuana eradication continues
  
• Bank robbery suspect arrested
  
• Salt Lake pileup injures two