Family sues over death
of woman in car crash

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By Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.com

Johnelle Tapu was a loving mother to her six children, hard-working and an unselfish volunteer in her Waipahu community, her family members said.

"It wasn't her time," said brother Darrin Manu of his sister's unexpected death in a car crash caused by an alleged drunken driver on Feb. 22.

Tapu's husband and family, which includes three brothers and seven sisters, filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Circuit Court against Ronald Kubo Jr., the driver who allegedly struck Tapu's car from behind as she slowed to avoid a fender bender on the H-1 eastbound near the Aiea offramp.

Tapu, 36, was on her way to Honolulu Airport, where she worked in security on the graveyard shift.

Kubo failed the sobriety test at the scene, said Richard Turbin, the family's attorney. His blood-alcohol content was 0.068 three hours after the collision, he said. "We believe he was well over the 0.08 limit" at the time of the crash.

Guy Matsunaga, Kubo's attorney, said Turbin's allegations against his client are irresponsible, particularly since police are not even close to completing their investigation, which often takes months. Even Matsunaga does not know what really happened, since no reports have yet been made available.

"Any time there's a death, it's unfortunate and there's public sympathy for the (victim's) family, but you need to give this guy a fair shake," Matsunaga said. "To basically make these wide generalized statements like this at the expense of my client is terrible."