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Judge voids Big Isle
police chief’s $155 fine
for illegal parking

By Rod Thompson
Star-Bulletin

KEALAKEKUA, Hawaii -- A Kona judge has dismissed a parking ticket issued to Hawaii County Police Chief Wayne Carvalho for allegedly parking in a handicap zone at a Kona hotel.

District Judge Colin Love dismissed the ticket after receiving statements from employees of the Royal Kona Resort that Carvalho was parked -- with permission -- in a loading zone, not a handicap zone.

After the ticket was issued on the night of May 18 or early morning of May 19, Carvalho said it was unlikely that the officer who wrote it didn't recognize his car.

He suggested the action was linked to dissatisfaction with him in the department following his loss of a lawsuit which accused him of participating in cheating on department promotions.

An unsupervised poll of officers in the department, released last month by the police union, State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers, showed about three quarters of those responding expressed no confidence in Carvalho. About half of the force did not respond.

Court documents show Judge Love fined Carvalho $155 on May 31 for the parking violation.

But on June 2, Love received a letter from Carvalho with two other letters attached from resort employees.

One stated, "I Donna K. Kualii state, when I was an employee at the Royal Kona Resort & Hilton (Kona), told Police Chief Wayne Carvalho to park his vehicle in the loading stall fronting the hotel whenever he came to visit."

A second letter from employee Francisco Omaya said he witnessed Carvalho's car parking in a loading zone, not a handicap zone, on May 19.

After receiving those and other letters, Judge Love voided the initial $155 fine and dismissed the charge on June 7.