Thursday, November 19, 1998
Big Isle Council seeks
downtown Hilo skate banBy Rod Thompson, Star-Bulletin
HILO -- The Hawaii County Council plans to ban skateboards and similar devices in downtown Hilo and "aggressive" panhandling there.
Both measures are designed to stop little problems that lead to bigger crimes, said Councilwoman Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd, who introduced the measures.
The Council passed the ban on coasters, roller skates, in-line skates, skateboards and similar devices yesterday, but it won't go into effect until March 1 -- if Mayor Stephen Yamashiro signs the bill -- to allow time to prepare signs and to let police educate skaters, she said.
The ban had been sought by business people who said skaters were damaging the faces of buildings by running their skates onto window sills, as well as scaring pedestrians and motorists by zipping close by them or across their path.
There are about 15 skaters who are causing most of the problems, she said.
Offenders can be fined from $25 for a first offense to $75 and confiscation of their equipment for a third offense. Before the official first offense, police would give skaters a warning and a free pass to the county's skateboard center at the Hoolulu recreation area, Leithead-Todd said. The normal entry fee is about a dollar.
A ban on aggressive panhandling also has been introduced, but more legal study will be done before a final vote is taken.
The American Civil Liberties Union objected to the ban as a restriction of free speech.
Leithead-Todd said the ban affects only panhandlers who follow people demanding money in a threatening way.
Maui public access TV board
wants cable cash to stay on isleBy Gary Kubota, Star-Bulletin
WAILUKU -- The board for public access television on Maui doesn't want money from cable television companies on the Valley Isle to go to Hawaii Public Television.
Peter Rader, a spokesman for Akaku: Maui Community Television Inc., and several other people said they want the money to remain in Maui County.
They spoke during a public hearing last night on Maui to review a proposed merger of cable TV station TCI of Hawaii Inc. with AT&T.
The state Cable Television Division is also receiving comments on TCI's request to renew its franchise in Maui County.
TCI official Deborah Luppold said many of those testifying at the hearing are associated with Akaku. She said her company could conduct a survey to find out if subscribers wanted to redirect funds from Hawaii Public Television.
The state receives up to 5 percent of the gross revenues from Maui County's two cable companies and uses it mainly for public programming, including Akaku.
About 1 percent or $180,000 goes to Hawaii Public Television, according to Akaku officials.
A number of residents supported expanding coverage to outlying areas, such as Olinda, Keanae and parts of Haiku.
Luppold said the decision was made to move the channels, based on subscriber surveys.
City: Citizens group could smooth voting
Three City Council members are asking the state's chief elections officer and county clerks to establish a citizens group on elections to ensure that ballot designs and the voter instruction process are easily understandable.
A resolution for the group was introduced by Council members John Henry Felix, Mufi Hannemann and Donna Mercado Kim.
"During this past election, there were many problems with the new voting system, not the least of which was voters' confusion over which areas of the ballot they were permitted to vote on without spoiling their ballot," Felix said.
Felix hopes a citizen's group may help clarify and simplify the election process.
Lualualei crash kills driver; passenger hurt
One man was killed and another injured early today in a car crash on Lualualei Access Road leading to the Navy's magazine facility in Waianae.
The accident was reported at 3:40 a.m.
Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Rod Gibbons said both men were civilian federal firefighters assigned to Naval Magazine Lualualei. They were in a car that overturned about one-quarter mile from the facility's main gate, Gibbons said. The cause was not known.
The driver was pronounced dead at Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center at 5 a.m. His 23-year-old passenger is in stable condition at St. Francis-West Hospital.
Kamehameha campus water well passes test
A well test on the Kamehameha Schools campus showed no significant contamination.
Trace amounts of three naturally occurring elements -- barium, chromium and nitrate -- appeared in water samples from the well.
But all levels are far below acceptable federal and state levels, a Schools announcement said.
These trace elements are common to Hawaii drinking water, it added.
The state Department of Health confirmed this information.
Maui rapist sentenced to 43 years in prison
WAILUKU -- A 27-year-old man described as a serial rapist was sentenced to 43 years in prison.
Kyle Livingston's latest victim was a Maui woman who had broken off an engagement with him and was sexually assaulted in his Paia room on March 14.
Deputy Prosecutor Davelynn Tengan said Livingston had been convicted several years ago of raping two other women in California.
Livingston served two years in prison for the California crimes and later moved to Maui.
Maui Circuit Judge Artemio Baxa yesterday sentenced Livingston under the multiple offender statute to consecutive and extended terms of imprisonment.
Livingston was found guilty of two counts of second-degree sexual assault, two counts of third-degree assault and second-degree unlawful imprisonment.
2-by-2 boulder falls onto Alencastre Street
A city crew today removed two boulders which fell onto the road the 1400 block of Alencastre Street.
The larger of the two rocks, which fell at about 8:15 a.m., was about 2 feet by 2 feet, police said.
Yukio Uyehara, head of the city road maintenance division, said there does not appear to be a threat of more large rocks falling.
Foundation to host USS Missouri reception
The Coast Guard Foundation will be hosting a $25-a-head reception tomorrow aboard the battleship USS Missouri, moored at Ford Island. It will begin at 5 p.m.
UH gets more grants for research, training
The University of Hawaii received more than $23 million in contracts, grants and awards for 117 research and training projects last month.
The amount brings the year-to-date total to $61.8 million -- a 28 percent rise over the first four months of the last fiscal year, and the highest four-month tally in four years. A few highlights:
n Agriculture -- $260,000 for papaya ring-spot virus research, $278,000 for studying the environmental effects of fruit-fly control and/or eradication, $224,000 for research on the control of minor crop pests.
n Education -- $595,000 from the U.S. Department of Education for rehabilitation research and training centers.
Recycles Day contest offers a 'dream home'
A Green Dream Home, made of recycled content materials, will be awarded to one entrant in the America Recycles Day contest.
Tomorrow is the deadline to send postcards pledging to recycle and to buy recycled-content items to: America Recycles Day Contest, c/o Remanufacturing Industries Council International, P.O. Box 10807, Chantilly, Va., 20153-0807.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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Police, Fire, Courts
By Star-Bulletin staff
Boy stabbed by mob is in 'fair' condition
A boy was stabbed in the back yesterday after being mobbed by a group of youths outside Kalakaua Recreation Center in Kalihi.
The boy, 15, is in fair condition at Queen's Hospital.
Police say the victim was attacked at about 4 p.m. by six or seven other youths, who were involved in a fight the boy witnessed while walking home from school. The group chased the boy and mobbed him after he fell, police said. He later discovered he had been stabbed in the back.
The suspects are still at large, police said. The case has been classified as attempted second-degree murder.
Man arrested in rape after accident injury
Police arrested a 40-year-old man for questioning about a reported rape that occurred before he was injured in an auto accident last night.
A woman, 18, told police she missed her bus and accepted a ride from the man in Kaneohe. While driving toward the Pali Tunnel, the woman said the man began fondling her. The woman escaped by jumping out of the car.
While she was being treated at Castle Hospital shortly before 10 p.m., police received reports that a man fitting the suspect's description was at Queen's Hospital.
Police arrested the man after he was identified by the woman.
He was booked for kidnapping, third-degree sex assault and drunken driving.
HPD takes part in 'Buckle Up Children'
Thanksgiving week is "Operation ABC Mobilization -- America Buckle Up Children Week" and the Honolulu Police Department will be among 5,000 national agencies conducting a high-visibility enforcement campaign.
Hawaii law requires children under age 4 riding in a vehicle to be buckled up. Drivers in violation could be fined up to $500 and may be required to pay $50 to attend a four-hour child passenger-restraint safety class.
THE COURTS
Former UH teacher gets 27 months
in child pornography caseBy Crystal Kua, Star-Bulletin
A former University of Hawaii faculty member told a federal judge yesterday that his child pornography conviction was the result of a "stupid mistake."
"I didn't do it before. I'll never do it again. I still don't know why," Bruce Gordon Adams said.
U.S. District Judge Alan Kay sentenced the former associate professor of microbiology, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to receiving child pornography, to 27 months in prison.
Kay also ordered that Adams pay a $6,000 fine, not possess or view child pornographic materials, stay away from children unless he receives approval, and undergo sex offender treatment.
Adams said the case has been stressful on him and his health -- he suffers from multiple sclerosis and bouts of depression.
But the most devastating consequence is he lost his job and the ability to do the one thing he loved: teach, he said.
"I've been in academics my whole life," Adams said. "I feel like a ship without a rudder."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo said the case bothered government officials because the number of child pornography materials found in Adams home was extensive. U.S. Customs agents found 2,000 pornographic images of children under the age of 18 downloaded from the Internet on the computer at his Manoa campus office between March 1996 and November 1997, he said.
Adams was arrested Dec. 4 after he received six child pornographic videotapes that he ordered from a company that had been taken over by customs agents.
Counterfeit watches bring fed charges for 2
Honolulu residents Ken Say Li, 34, and Billy Li, 32, face federal charges of trafficking in counterfeit watches and money-laundering.
An indictment says the two sold counterfeit watches through a business named Hawaii Time and J&B Hawaii Time in Waikiki.
The watches bore counterfeit trademarks of high-quality designers such as Rolex, Tag-Heuer and Chanel. In June 1996, the two had more than 2,000 counterfeit watches with an appraised value of more than $170,000 available for sale, the indictment says.
Local actor sentenced to 10 years for drugs
A local actor has received a 10-year prison term on federal drug-trafficking charges.
Scott Augafa, 32, pleaded guilty to five counts in two separate indictments accusing him of conspiring to distribute cocaine and crystal methamphetamine or "ice."
Augafa had a bit role in the movie "Six Days/Seven Nights," which was filming on Kauai at the time the arrest warrant went out for him last year. Augafa also portrayed a bodyguard in last year's "Hawaii Five-O" pilot.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Muehleck described Augafa as a recipient and distributor of ice and cocaine in Hawaii in 1995 and 1996. Augafa was one of 16 people indicted by a federal grand jury on drug-trafficking charges involving a $10 million distribution ring that operated in Hawaii, California, Alaska and Nevada.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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