The state Supreme Court has ruled that an insurance company for Kauai County's police department does not have to pay half of a $715,000 settlement to the family of a pedestrian run over by a Kauai police patrol car in 1992. Ruling affects settlement
in man's deathScottsdale Insurance appealed an Intermediate Court of Appeals ruling because it felt the county's automobile insurance company should pay the settlement.
Kauai police officer Daniel Abadilla hit and killed Gilbert Moniz, who was walking on the shoulder of Kaumualii Highway erecting barriers for a cane burn.
The accident happened at 3:30 a.m. Evidence showed the police car traveled about 120 feet on the shoulder of the road before the impact, indicating Abadilla may have fallen asleep at the wheel.
Court records show Abadilla had worked from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. the day before, had six hours off and started his regular patrol shift at 10 p.m.
Grants to help fund infertility conference
Resolve of Hawaii, a nonprofit support group for people experiencing infertility, received a $5,000 grant Sunday from Pacific In Vitro Fertilization Institute to help offset costs for an all-day conference set for June 5.Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children, Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Stadtlanders Pharmacy also awarded grants of $500 each.
The conference, "Insights Into Infertility: When You're Wishing for a Baby," is open to anyone interested. People who have been trying to conceive a child for more than one year are especially encouraged.
Topics to be covered at the conference are: adoption, advanced reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization, alternative therapies, stress and infertility, and egg donation.
An estimated 39,000 couples in Hawaii experience infertility, Resolve of Hawaii Chairwoman Dot Shigemura said.
To register or ask questions, call 528-8559.
'Drive akamai,' not angry, TV ads urge
The city Department of Transportation Services will be running a series of television spots encouraging motorists to not go into "road rage."The spots telling motorists to "drive akamai" were introduced yesterday.
"Relieve your tension elsewhere, not on the road with other drivers," Mayor Jeremy Harris said in yesterday's spot.
Also part of the Road Rage Relief program, more than 100,000 rubber stress-relief balls, bumper stickers and safety tip brochures will be distributed by ARCO gasoline, American Automobile Association and AIG Hawaii Insurance.
Other sponsors are KITV television, the Hawaii Transportation Association and the Honolulu Police Department.
Wailea beach, 6 others rated nation's best
WAILEA, Hawaii -- If you want to hit America's best beach, come to Wailea.Lava formations, sunny weather and resident sea turtles make Wailea Beach No. 1, says a Florida professor known as "Dr. Beach."
The leeward Maui beach is one of seven isle beaches in this year's top 20 list compiled by Stephen Leatherman, a Florida International University coastal geologist.
Florida also has seven beaches in the top 20 -- sharing one with Alabama. Others are in California, Massachusetts, New York and North Carolina.
The other Hawaii beaches in the top 20 are Kaunaoa on the Big Island (No. 2), Hanalei on Kauai (No. 4), Kaanapali Beach on Maui (No. 5), Hamoa Beach on Maui (No. 8), Poipu Beach Park on Kauai (No. 17) and Hanauma Bay on Oahu (No. 18).
In Leatherman's nine surveys since 1991, a Hawaii beach has ranked No. 1 six times.
Pacific strategy chief tapped for promotion
Army Col. Kenneth Quinlan, chief of the strategic plans division at U.S. Pacific Command, has recently been selected for the rank of brigadier general.He was commissioned in 1973 and has commanded the 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division; and the 10th Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division.
The Hawaiian Humane Society is open on Monday, Memorial Day. A graphic yesterday was incorrect. Correction
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Police, Fire
By Star-Bulletin staffLIHUE, Kauai -- Police were negotiating this morning with a 31-year-old man who had barricaded himself inside his girlfriend's apartment, armed with a rifle and threatening suicide. Police try to secure
armed suicidal manEarlier, police had convinced him to release his 39-year-old girlfriend and her 12-year-old son whom he was holding hostage when officers arrived at the Lihue Court Townhouse complex.
Officers said the man went to his girlfriend's apartment at 5:30 this morning, threatening suicide. Neighbors called police when they heard the two arguing.
Car hits officer; driver jumps from car, flees
A 33-year-old Kaneohe man is wanted for attempted murder after allegedly trying to run over a police officer.Officers went to the suspect's Kahuhipa Street home at 7:30 p.m. to arrest him for misdemeanor domestic abuse.
When the suspect was approached, he locked himself in a car. When the officers tried to remove him from the car, he reportedly rammed an officer and drove away.
Officers pursued the man, but he escaped on foot. The officer who was struck received minor injuries, police said.
Damien pupil arrested in fake bomb incident
A 14-year-old Damien High School boy was arrested yesterday in connection with planting a phony bomb at the school earlier this month.The device and a threatening note were found on the morning of May 4, police said. An investigation led to the identification of the boy and yesterday's arrest.
He was booked for first-degree terroristic threatening.
Man, 34, booked in assault on clerk
A 34-year-old man was arrested for allegedly attacking and robbing a sales clerk after being refused a return.The suspect yesterday tried to return a boat motor that he purchased a month ago at Shin's Marine in Mapunapuna, police said. When the sales clerk denied the return because it was used, the suspect attacked the clerk, police said.
The suspect reportedly punched and kicked the clerk, then took some money that was in the clerk's pants.
The suspect was booked for second-degree robbery.
Police seek two men in Waikiki robbery
Police are searching for two men who robbed and attacked a man in Waikiki yesterday.Two suspects approached the victim at Ala Wai Boulevard and Nohonani Street at 11:45 p.m. and asked for a dollar, police said. The man, 18, gave the suspects a dollar and walked away.
The suspects then struck the man in the head with a skateboard and demanded more money. The victim gave them three more dollars. The man ran away and called police from a friend's apartment.
12-year-old arrested for threats on teacher
Police yesterday arrested a 12-year-old boy for terroristic threatening after he allegedly threatened to kill a teacher at Mokapu Elementary School.The incident happened at about 12:30 in the afternoon and the threat was witnessed by another teacher, police said. The boy was located and arrested at about 4 p.m.
In other news...
KAILUA-KONA -- Police have identified a man whose body was found on the lawn of the Head Start building in Kailua-Kona Sunday as Christopher Paul Rein, 33, of Ocean View.
An autopsy showed Rein died of internal injuries, apparently as a result of a motorcycle accident the preceding Thursday, police said.
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