Cops follow accuser,
check her calls

Sharon Black was followed after
filing a sex harassment complaint

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

Police Chief Michael Nakamura ordered a specialized organized-crime squad to follow Project Outreach coordinator Sharon Black soon after she filed a sexual harassment complaint against then-Assistant Chief Joseph Aveiro Jr.

The Criminal Intelligence Unit was told to follow Black around town and to place a "trap" on Black's telephone and pager, compiling a log of calls made and received.

Nakamura's interview acknowledging the actions are part of a report filed by the Internal Affairs Division, which investigated Black's allegations against Aveiro.

The chief denies any wrongdoing.

Rodney Veary, Black's attorney, said he will file suit against Aveiro, Nakamura and the city. Aveiro was Black's supervisor. Black said that Aveiro constantly spoke of sex to her and that she was coerced into having sex with him four times over five years because she feared she would lose her job.

Aveiro has denied wrongdoing, claiming his relations with Black were consensual. Aveiro retired with full benefits. Recommendations by the city Personnel Department and the city equal employment officer that Aveiro be suspended for 60 days were never carried out.

The Star-Bulletin has also learned that Nakamura did not submit the Internal Affairs report to the department's Administrative Review Board for recommendation of disciplinary action, as required.

The City Council last month rejected a $1.1 million settlement proposal. Earlier this year, attorneys agreed on a $1.25 million settlement only to see that refused by the Council in favor of a $500,000 counteroffer that was shot down by Black.

The law says police cannot place a trap on a person's phone or pager unless they have a court order or have the consent of the person being trapped.

Black was apparently unaware of the trap, but Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Jean Motoyama - quoting Nakamura - said: "We would not do anything illegal. Everything will come out in court."

In his Internal Affairs interview, Nakamura said he initially asked for surveillance on Black's car after she found a threatening note on its windshield soon after her complaint was filed.

The Criminal Intelligence Unit, Motoyama said, gathers information on organized crime and reports directly to the chief.

The Black case, however, was not related to organized crime.

'It was really awful'

Regarding the surveillance, at one point in his Internal Affairs interview, Nakamura said, "I was concerned about any retaliation against Sharon, and by having surveillance on the car, we could corroborate anything that happened in the future by having someone already witness a person placing a note on the car or a person damaging the car."

Asked later why two police teams -- Internal Affairs and Criminal Intelligence Unit -- were involved, Nakamura replied: "I probably don't have a good reason. I was just xxx It was just that I wanted to keep it as, as tight as possible."

Black, in an Internal Affairs interview, said she confronted the criminal intelligence officers after security guards in her condominium complex spotted them following her.

Aveiro's private telephone conservations also are discussed in the report. Internal Affairs officers, in questioning Aveiro, referred to the number of calls he placed to his sister the weekend after Black's complaint was filed.

The Internal Affairs report, under HPD's special orders signed by Nakamura, should have been forwarded to the department's Administrative Review Board for recommendations of disciplinary action.

However, HPD's Motoyama said, "Because Assistant Chief Aveiro was of such high rank and the ARB was made up of his peers, the chief is the only one who reviewed the report and made a recommendation on the report."

Nakamura recommended a 10-day suspension. Later, the city Personnel Department and equal employment opportunity officer recommended 60 days. But Aveiro was never suspended or disciplined.

The Internal Affairs report also covers Internal Affairs officers questioning Aveiro about whether he knew that one officer's car tires had been slashed and that officers had received hang-up and "heavy-breathing" telephone calls since the investigation began.

The report also contains the transcript of a conversation that Black had with Aveiro which she taped. In it, Aveiro told Black to bring pantyhose, spike heels and a Polaroid camera to his house when his family was away on a Las Vegas trip.

In the meantime, Black is trying to joke with him about it while trying to ask him questions about cases.

Black said the conversation was typical of the ones she had with Aveiro.

According to the Internal Affairs report, Black said she had had problems with Aveiro since before her contract with the Police Department began in 1992. It began with unwelcome comments about how she looked better than her pictures, and the discussions -- and actions -- quickly progressed, she said.

The first time the two had sex, in July 1992, Black said, Aveiro showed up unannounced at her apartment and, when she went to get beverages, unzipped his pants and began stroking himself. Black told investigators she felt obliged.

Black said Aveiro was the aggressor throughout. She tolerated the harassment and obliged sexually because she feared for her job. As coordinator of the award-winning Project Outreach, Black was an annual contractual hire. Black told investigators she feared Aveiro, her supervisor, would recommend to Nakamura that the contract not be renewed. She charged that he repeatedly threatened to pull her contract.

"It was really awful, but every time I would try to change the subject or just laugh it away, he would remind me that he could end this program because the department didn't really need it and that the chief would take his recommendation," Black said. "Often, I was shocked but handled it by laughing."

Black said that after the first sexual contact, the sexual innuendoes worsened and he began making comments about being sexually attracted to overweight women.

'I fell to her lure'

Black said that whenever she stood up to him and told him that she was uncomfortable, he would not return her calls on business matters.

Aveiro told investigators that the liaisons were consensual, that Black pursued him by visiting him at his office and calling him. "In most instances, I would never call her. However, in several instances, I fell to her lure and did call."

Aveiro said he could identify with Black because both come from rough neighborhoods. "I think she's much saltier than I am," he told Internal Affairs investigators, adding that he "at times felt sorry for her."

Elsewhere in his interview, Aveiro said: "She's a female, right? I'm a male and well, I ... I ... I cannot say any less than that. I mean, there was a lure. I fell for it and I went and I'm not lying about that."

Aveiro also denied threatening to recommend that Black's contract be discontinued.

Marshall Chinen, Aveiro's attorney, did not return calls regarding this story.