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Changing Hawaii

By Diane Yukihiro Chang

Monday, March 6, 2000

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Disturbing questions
after death of Andrea

IN January 1998, Oahu resident Allan Dequito sought and obtained a temporary restraining order against his wife, Andrea Belcina-Dequito. Allan claimed that Andrea had punched and slapped him, threatened to kill him and inflicted "extreme psychological abuse."

Six months later, it was Allan who was convicted of domestic violence. He was sentenced to one-year probation and ordered to complete a domestic violence intervention program.

According to a Star-Bulletin story, he finished the program in February 1999, with his discharge report noting that he "appears to have general ability to...use anger-management skills."

Last month, on the night of Feb. 2, in the usually quiet neighborhood of Ewa East by Gentry, Andrea was shot to death by Allan, who then fatally turned the gun on himself. They were both 27.

End of story. But just the beginning of many disturbing questions, according to the February newsletter of the League of Women Voters of Honolulu and its cover story, "The Murder of Andrea -- Could We Have Done More?"

According to the article, the following inquiries must be answered immediately, so the system can learn from Andrea's death and make sure that her fate is not suffered by innumerable others:

What happened previously when the police went to the Dequito home on domestic violence calls? Was a crisis counselor/advocate available to Andrea? Did the advocate have any advice or priorities for her, such as coming up with a safety plan?
Was Andrea ever taken to a hospital with injuries suffered from a battering? How was her case handled? Was there an advocate at the hospital?
What was Andrea's experience with the prosecutor's office with respect to Allan's 1998 conviction? Was she informed of the dynamics of domestic violence? Did the office provide her with domestic violence advocacy and safety planning assistance? Did she testify in the case against Allan and, if so, did she express fear of retaliation?
Why was Allan able to obtain a temporary restraining order against Andrea prior to his conviction? Was he truly afraid of her? Who helped him get the TRO? Is there a movement afoot to make this a genderless crime, although there are few male victims? Have batterers learned how to turn the tables and transform a system meant to help abuse victims to become one that is now being used against the victims?
What were the standards of the anger management classes that Allan attended? How are such programs evaluated for effectiveness? Do they actually help batterers change their abusive ways or merely teach them how to better manipulate the system?

THE newsletter's article ended with two of the most chilling questions of all when it comes to the topic of domestic abuse: Whose daughter is going to be the next victim? Whose mother is going to die?

Or sister, granddaughter, cousin, niece, friend, co-worker or neighbor, for that matter. Or the woman you just saw yesterday, the one who you thought would never, ever die at the hands of a "loved one."

In closing, here's one more question to throw into the mix -- especially in light of the multitude of unknowns in the tragic Andrea and Allan Dequito case: Is anybody within the system wondering about these things?

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Diane Yukihiro Chang's column runs Monday and Friday.
She can be reached by phone at 525-8607, via e-mail at
dchang@starbulletin.com, or by fax at 523-7863.