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Former Maui
cops say they fear
retaliation for lawsuits

The two filed lawsuits alleging unfair
treatment and racial discrimination

By Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin

Two men say they fear retaliation from the Maui Police Department for filing complaints alleging racial discrimination and unfair treatment in evaluating their performance as police officers.

Guy P. Souza and Dereck H. Aveiro were scheduled today to hold a news conference on their individual lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in Honolulu.

No date has been set for the trials.

Souza has been terminated by the department, and Aveiro is on leave without pay.

The lawsuit alleges Souza, a black Puerto Rican, and family members were stalked by a number of police officers at a shopping mall after filing a discrimination complaint with the state Labor Department.

It also charges that Souza and Aveiro were falsely accused of being responsible for missing contraband during an arrest of a shoplifter at Liberty House.

Aveiro's lawsuit charges that police failed to respond properly to his complaint against another police officer who stalked and threatened to kill him over a dispute about a girlfriend.

Aveiro, a mixture of native Hawaiian, Portuguese and Filipino, alleged supervisors in the department gave the other police officer preferential treatment because they and the officer were Japanese Americans.

The lawsuit, filed on April 20, alleges Aveiro was also treated unfairly because of his close association with Souza.

Aveiro said he was deprived of promotions after being unjustly accused of beating a prisoner, while a Japanese American police officer who faced similar charges was promoted.

Maui Police Chief Tom Phillips said he was aware of the two men's grievances but had not seen the federal lawsuits.

Phillips, who is Caucasian, said the Maui Police Department does not discriminate against any race or make selections about promotions based on their family ties.

"I don't have any family in the department," Phillips said. "Whether someone's Japanese or someone else doesn't matter to me."