Maui cop felt
‘iced out’ by peers

Bonnie Burke claims harassment
caused her to collapse and that
a deputy chief raped her

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

In police recruit school, Bonnie Burke was told that female recruits needed to work hard to prove themselves. She learned about the code of silence, the brotherhood.

"We all bleed blue, and we never turn on each other because if you do, you stand alone," she testified yesterday in the second day of trial in her sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit against the Maui Police Department. She said she didn't know what they meant until now.

Burke, who joined the Maui Police Department in February 1991, became the target of retaliation by male officers after she collapsed from stress in April 1997 and attributed it to harassment.

"I'm so scared," she said during her testimony yesterday.

Burke testified that she was "iced out" by fellow male officers. When she walked into a restaurant, officers would leave, even after they had just ordered. They would call her racial and obscene names and make obscene gestures. Once when she requested help from other officers on a case in which a man was down, officers drove by laughing without stopping.

"I thought I could change these guys, swing them around if I worked harder," she said. But the harassment continued, from both officers and supervisors.

Burke also filed a complaint against former Deputy Police Chief Lanny Tihada, claiming he sexually harassed her and later raped her on at least three occasions at her home.

"I never felt so dirty in my life," Burke said, describing one of the assaults. "I just remember showering and throwing up."

Throughout her account, Burke cried as she detailed several instances in which an intoxicated Tihada came by her home and tried to kiss her or ordered her to perform sexual acts. He would grab her hand and shove it against his crotch and into his pants, calling her obscene names, she said.

She said she was appalled at his behavior and dreaded his visits.

"I respected this man. He's the commander, second in command in the entire department."

While she had let Tihada into her home, Burke said everyone makes mistakes. "I didn't want to lose my career. I love what I do," she said.

Female police officers had to tolerate sexual harassment in the Maui Police Department, said Michael Nauyokas, one of Burke's attorneys. "If not, your career is ruined." Tihada, who retired in April 1996 after 26 years in the Maui Police Department amid allegations of sexual harassment involving two other women, in the past has said he is innocent of the charges.

He could not be reached for comment.

One of the women, Molokai police dispatcher Susan McPherson, recently settled out of court for $20,000.

Attorney Richard Rand, representing the Maui Police Department, refused to comment on the ongoing trial.

The trial resumes today and is expected to last three weeks.