Radar platform back for repair

The Sea Based-X Band Radar, which left Pearl Harbor on Friday for Alaska, returned to the islands yesterday because of mechanical problems.

The sea radar platform was assembled at Corpus Christi, Texas, and brought to Pearl Harbor aboard the transport MV Blue Marlin on Jan. 9.

The Navy said the platform ran into mechanical problems and was returned to Pearl Harbor rather than repaired at sea. It will undergo more testing and sea trials before arriving at its new home port in Adak, Alaska.

There, the mobile radar platform will be used to track and identify incoming missiles as part of the ballistic missile defense system.

[ THE COURTS ]

2 doctors charged with drugs, Medicaid fraud

Two doctors illegally distributed narcotic prescription drugs and billed the state Medicaid program for services already paid for, according to separate federal indictments unsealed Monday.

A federal grand jury on March 29 charged Dr. Kachun Clement Yeung, 53, with 30 counts of distributing Oxycodone "outside the course of professional medical practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose" and fraudulently billing Medicare for more than $2,200 in services rendered on 16 different occasions between February and July 2002.

Oxycodone is a painkiller.

The grand jury also charged Dr. Barry N. Odegaard, 53, with 10 counts of distributing Oxycodone between March and December 2004 and submitting nearly $500 in false billings to Medicaid between August to November 2004.

Yeung, who has a practice on Vineyard Boulevard, did not return calls for comment.

Odegaard, who practices in Waialae, could not be reached for comment.

Both appeared in federal court Monday afternoon and were released pending trial after each posted a $50,000 bond. They both have been stripped of their licenses to prescribe controlled substances.

Former police officer gets 2 years for 'ice'

A former Maui police officer was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison for carrying two pounds of crystal methamphetamine for a drug ring linking Las Vegas and the Valley Isle.

Reed K. Aken Sr., 37, pleaded guilty in November to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute seven pounds of crystal methamphetamine.

Aken was arrested in May 2005 during a stopover at Los Angeles International Airport. He was on his way back to Maui from Las Vegas, carrying two pounds of "ice" that he had purchased for $9,500 per pound.

Aken admitted to narcotics agents that he had flown to Las Vegas with about $66,000 at the request of Maui resident Nathaniel "Bobo" Russell to pick up "ice."

The plan allegedly was to acquire up to seven pounds of methamphetamine for about $66,000 cash, body-carry two pounds and send the remaining five pounds through the U.S. Postal Service, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Kawahara.

Aken, who cooperated and assisted in the investigation, had been facing a mandatory 10-year term.

Police, Fire, Courts

Star-Bulletin staff

WINDWARD OAHU

2 male suspects sought in home invasion robbery

Police are looking for two males suspected of a home-invasion robbery in Kaneohe on Monday.

Police said the suspects entered the home about 1 p.m. and physically forced a woman who lived there to lie on the floor. Both men were wearing ski masks and did not appear to be armed, according to police.

The suspects then searched the rooms of the woman's adult son and daughter and took cash and a safe, police said. Police did not release further details.

Missing man found on Marine Corps Base

A missing 21-year-old Kaneohe man who suffers from schizophrenia was found yesterday.

Liam P.K. Gray had last been seen about 4 p.m. Friday at his home on Ohaha Street after he had a psychotic episode, police said.

Gray was located 12:30 a.m. yesterday by military police on Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe.

Police and fire crews searched on the ground and from the air for him Monday along the mountain area behind Gray's home but were unable to find him by nightfall.

HONOLULU

GPS device helps catch SUV theft suspect

An alert police detective and a global positioning system tracking device helped catch a man who allegedly stole a sport utility vehicle from a dealership lot Monday, police said.

Police said the man, 30, took the 2007 SUV as it was being prepped for a customer at a Kakaako dealership about 3:15 p.m. The vehicle's location was pinpointed about 45 minutes later by a GPS device in the car, police said.

As the detective was leaving police headquarters at 801 S. Beretania St., he heard the vehicle's location broadcast on his police radio and spotted the car in his rear-view mirror.

More officers converged on the car near Chinatown. The driver of the stolen SUV crashed into a passing car as he tried to escape, police said. The driver abandoned the vehicle a couple of blocks later and fled on foot, police said.

Police chased the man and caught him when he ran into a patrol car with enough force that he damaged the door and broke a side-view mirror. Police arrested him for investigation of auto theft.

CENTRAL OAHU

Tip leads to arrest of suspect in Wahiawa

An anonymous tip led police to the arrest of an auto-theft suspect in Wahiawa on Monday.

The call came in about 12:30 p.m. and said the suspect could be found sitting in a vehicle that was parked at 1303 Whitmore Ave.

Officers found a 40-year-old man sitting in the vehicle and learned that there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest in an auto-theft case. He was also arrested for investigation of drug offenses after police found a glass pipe with residue believed to be crystal methamphetamine in his possession.