No suit planned
By Christine Donnelly
over woman’s suicide
Star-BulletinThe husband of a woman who killed herself after a tryst with Bishop Estate trustee Gerard Jervis has no intention of suing over her death, his lawyer said.
Scott Kitaoka hired a lawyer and sought a court order because that's the only way he could get police records on the circumstances surrounding his wife's death, said attorney Richard Fried.
"He has finally gotten to the point where he just wants to find out what happened. That's it. It's never entered his mind that a lawsuit would be filed," Fried said.
Kitaoka had asked the police department for the records himself but was rebuffed, Fried said. That led to a Circuit Court request Tuesday for a subpoena forcing police to turn over any related investigative reports, records, bills and photographs.
Possible future legal action was cited as a reason for needing the records, but Fried said that was "standard form language" not applicable in this case.
Honolulu police spokeswoman June Motoyama said the department had not received a subpoena yet. Once it arrived, police would share whatever information they could, she said, adding that the case remains open.
Subpoenas are commonly sought to release police records, which are subject to strict confidentiality rules, Motoyama said. Even family members can't get complete reports during an investigation.
On March 3, Kitaoka found his wife, Bishop Estate lawyer Rene Ojiri Kitaoka, dead of self-inflicted carbon-monoxide poisoning at their home in Kaneohe. The night before, Ojiri Kitaoka and Jervis had been thrown out of the Hawaii Prince Hotel after a security guard caught them in a compromising position in a public restroom.
Scott Kitaoka has said he had no inkling of the Waikiki incident until after his wife died.
On March 11, as the scandal was about to become public, Jervis overdosed on sleeping pills and was hospitalized.
Jervis has since returned to work on a limited basis.
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