Newswatch

By Star-Bulletin Staff

Tuesday, August 18, 1998

50 isle inmates in Texas will
move to another prison

Hawaii will transfer 50 inmates from the Newton County Correctional Center to another facility in Texas.

The inmates being transferred are those who are serving time for murder, rape and other serious crimes.

That will leave 385 inmates in the facility located 98 miles north of Beaumont near the Louisiana border.

The Department of Public Safety said it will not identify the prison where the inmates will be moved until after the transfer has been completed.

The move apparently is in line with the concerns recently raised about the conditions at Newton.

Newton, with its dormitory prison arrangement, has been the source of the major problems involving Hawaii inmates, including several escapes and fights.

The state has sent 900 inmates to prisons in Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee because of crowded conditions here.

State Public Safety Director Keith Kaneshiro has said the only permanent solution to the problem is to build more prison facilities in Hawaii.

A new 2,000-bed facility is being developed for the Big Island.

State, HGEA reach accord on Kapolei move

The state has reached an agreement with the Hawaii Government Employees Association to start transferring employees to Kapolei, the head of the union said yesterday.

The union last month won an order from the Hawaii Labor Relations Board to block the move of 1,100 workers because the state administration had failed to consult with the union.

An informal agreement was reached last week allowing the state to go ahead with the transfers while the union and administration finalize an agreement on handling employees who face personal hardships because of the move, HGEA executive director Russell Okata said.

There will be a process that puts employees with strong objections to the move in line to take positions as they become vacant where they are now working, he said.

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Police, Fire, Courts



By Star-Bulletin staff

Shots fired at officer barely
missed, police affidavit says

Shots allegedly fired by an Aiea man Saturday night in Mililani came within 2 feet of striking a police officer, according to a court document.

In an affidavit filed today in District Court, Wahiawa Crime Reduction Unit officer Arthur Nakamura said witnesses identified 18-year-old Jason Rumbawa as the shooter and that the shots fired at officer Darren Kitagawa from a car "struck a grassy area and kicked up dirt two feet away from Kitagawa."

Police yesterday charged Rumbawa, of Hoio Street, with attempted first-degree murder, five counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and other firearm violations.

Police also charged Michael Maristella, 19, of Aiea Heights Drive with two counts each of hindering prosecution and firearm offenses in connection with the case.

Maristella was the driver of the car, the affidavit said.

Both men were arrested at 1:35 a.m. Sunday after officers spotted the suspect vehicle traveling south on Aiea Heights Drive near Ulune Street.

District Judge I. Norman Lewis today confirmed bail for Rumbawa and Maristella at $345,000 and $70,000, respectively, and set a preliminary hearing for both for Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

According to Nakamura's affidavit, Rumbawa and Maristella arrived at a birthday/baptismal party being hosted by Janet Medrano and Jason Santiago for their child at Mililani Recreation Center on Kaloapau Street at about 9:50 p.m. Saturday.

The two men were in the company of a girl, who was an invited guest, but when she asked if Rumbawa and Maristella could attend, the hosts denied an invitation to them.

The two men were being escorted out when Rumbawa allegedly threatened the men escorting them out with a semiautomatic handgun.

Kitagawa, who was working a special-duty assignment at the party, came to the parking lot area to investigate the disturbance, and shots were fired at him from a dark-colored Toyota, the affidavit said.

Witness Danny Ah Quinn Jr. told police the suspect fired directly at Kitagawa, stated Nakamura.

No injuries were reported.

The gun used was reportedly stolen July 21 in a burglary, police said.

Disguised bandits rob restaurant in Makiki

Two men covered from head to toe in white fumigator-like outfits and nose masks robbed the Makiki Zippy's early today as early morning customers breakfasted.

The men entered the restaurant at 1222 S. King through the Young Street entrance at about 6:30 a.m.

One of them brandished a rifle or shotgun as the other crouched behind the cashier's counter and broke into a bin holding the restaurant's receipts.

Both fled in a waiting car driven by another man. None of the customers were harmed and the restaurant remained open.

Police release names of accident victims

The medical examiner's office has identified two men killed in separate traffic accidents last weekend as 18-year-old Aaron Abadilla of Mililani and Michael Mackinnon, 19, of Kailua.

Abadilla suffered a skull fracture and intercranial injuries after being thrown from the bed of a pickup truck that flipped over Saturday night on California Avenue near Makaweo Avenue in Wahiawa.

Four others in the truck were treated for injuries and released from Wahiawa and Queen's hospitals.

Mackinnon, meanwhile, died of multiple traumatic injuries suffered when the car he was driving was broadsided by a pickup truck Sunday at the intersection of Mahailua and Kakaina streets in Waimanalo.

Police vehicular homicide investigators said the car ran a stop sign.

An 18-year-old girl, a passenger in the car, remains in critical condition in Queen's Hospital. The driver of the pickup truck was not seriously injured.

Three-time abuser faces tougher felony charge

Police are seeking felony charges against 35-year-old Wahiawa man for repeated family-abuse offenses.

The man was arrested yesterday after his 14-year-old daughter reported a painful arm injury to school officials, who then notified Child Protective Services and police.

The girl told police her father slapped, kicked and punched her Sunday during an argument. Also, he allegedly threw a telephone at her that struck her arm and then hit the girl on the head with the receiver, police said.

With three prior convictions for misdemeanor abuse of a household member, the man is now eligible to charged with a class-C felony for a fourth offense. This is the first time police are applying the new criteria, said Lt. Robert Naylor of the Criminal Investigation Division.

Man arrested after fight with former lover

KAILUA-KONA -- Police have charged John Louis Napolitano, 37, of no permanent address, with abusing a household member after he punched his former girlfriend in the nose at her apartment Sunday night, they said.

Two men hurt when car goes off steep cliff

HONOKAA, Hawaii -- Two men were injured, one critically, when a car drove off steep, winding Plumeria Road in Honokaa at 1:39 a.m. yesterday, police said.

The passenger, Christopher Dacquel, 18, of Kalopa, was taken to North Hawaii Hospital, then transferred to Queens Hospital.

The driver, a 20-year-old Honokaa man, was arrested for drunken driving, lack of no-fault insurance, and negligent injury, but was released pending charges.

California man drowns at deserted beach

POLOLU VALLEY, Hawaii -- A California man drowned yesterday when he was caught by currents and carried away from the shore while swimming at uninhabited Pololu Valley, police said.

He was identified as Mohamed L. Dadci, 56.

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