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Newswatch
Police, Fire, Courts

By Star-Bulletin Staff

Wednesday, June 7, 2000

Man who suffered paralyzing
injury in disco gets $3.2 million

A $3.2 million settlement has gone to a Los Angeles man who suffered spinal injury and is in a wheelchair because of an accident at a Waikiki disco.

Duy Phun, 21, was injured June 7, 1997, while dancing at the Maharaja, formerly located at the Waikiki Trade Center.

Phun, two weeks after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, climbed on an elevated dance stage and fell, sustaining a spinal cord injury. The 36-inch high dancing stage without rails violated building codes and was hazardous, Phun's lawsuit claimed.

It further claimed security guards picked up Phun after he had fallen and carried him outside not realizing how badly he was injured. The security guards thought he was intoxicated, the suit said.

The Japanese corporation that owned the Maharaja is now "defunct," according to a news release from Davis Levin Livingston Grande, the Honolulu law firm that represented Phun.

"Elevated dancing stages of this nature became popular throughout Asia and in some places in the United States," said his attorney, Mark Davis. "Without question, however, without rails or other safety precautions, they are inherently dangerous. We hope that the resolution of this case will call attention to the risk associated with unprotected, unguarded, elevated dancing stages in night clubs."

Care-home operator
allowed to go to trial

A care-home operator who initially pleaded no contest in the death of a patient will go to trial.

Circuit Judge Richard Perkins on Monday granted Raquel Bermisa's motion to withdraw her no-contest plea. The court will set a date for trial on June 13 on a charge of manslaughter by omission, her attorney, William Harrison, said yesterday, noting that he was very pleased with the court's findings.

Bermisa pleaded no contest in March to manslaughter by omission for failing to provide proper medical attention for 79-year-old Chiyeko Tanouye.

The state contends Tanouye's death could have been prevented had Bermisa taken her to the doctor for treatment of pressure sores that later became infected and resulted in her death.

Bermisa and her then-attorney, Alfred Evangelista, did not know at the time she made her initial plea that expert testimony later provided by an infectious disease doctor was available.

Steven Berman, a specialist in infectious disease retained by Harrison testified last month that Tanouye died as a result of a heart attack, and not from the pressure sores.

The court, in its seven-page findings, noted the new information that the victim's pressure sores had nothing to do with her death, "if believed by a reasonable juror, would exculpate the defendant" and found Bermisa's testimony to be credible.

"The defendant's unawareness, at the time of her plea, of the availability of substantial evidence indicating that she could not have caused the victim's death is a fair and just reason to permit the withdrawal of her plea," Perkins wrote.

Deputy Attorney General Michael Parrish declined to comment on the court's findings, saying he hadn't seen the order.

Teamsters Local 995 endorses Hannemann

The Hawaii Teamsters and Allied Workers Union, Local 996, has endorsed Councilman Mufi Hannemann for mayor. The union represents 5,665 members, including TheBus operators and some workers at most hospitals.

Hannemann has also received endorsements from the Hawaii Government Employees Association and the United Public Workers in his bid to unseat Mayor Jeremy Harris.

Harris was endorsed last week by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Hawaii Nurses Association and the Hawaii Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO.

Public worker unions' prison bidding vetoed

Gov. Ben Cayetano has vetoed a bill allowing public employee unions to bid to operate a privately built prison planned for the Big Island.

The governor said several weeks ago he would veto the bill passed with just minutes to spare to meet a deadline in the closing days of the legislative session last month.

The bill "in its current state of compromise cannot, as a practical matter, accomplish its goal," Cayetano said.

Corrections The public school academic calendar for the 2000-2001 school year has 181 instructional days, a department spokesman said. A story on year-round schedules yesterday had an incorrect figure. The title of the statue at Blaisdell Center is "Resting Dancer." Another name was given in WatDat? Monday. The first arrests in the Ewa Villages scandal were made Oct. 31, 1997. A story yesterday included an incorrect date.

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Police, Fire, Courts



By Star-Bulletin staff

Honolulu Police Department Crimestoppers

Boy arrested for allegedly bringing gun to school

A 14-year-old Mililani Middle School boy was arrested yesterday for allegedly bringing a gun to school last month and showing to other students.

The boy reportedly showed a couple of friends a pistol at school on May 6, saying he needed it for protection, police said. One boy, 14, who saw the gun, reported the incident to school officials yesterday after the suspect expressed a desire to use the weapon.

The boy was arrested at the school for on firearms violations after police were contacted by the school. He was later released to his parents.

No weapon was recovered at the boy's home, said Detective Darren Izumo. It is still unknown whether the gun was real or a toy.

Principal Roger Kim wouldn't comment this morning, citing the investigation.

Department of Education spokesman Greg Knudsen said procedures are being followed in the investigation.

Police arrest defendant who ran from courtroom

Police arrested a convicted drug offender who bolted from a courtroom yesterday after being sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Police said Donald Chevalier, 38, was captured when he returned to his Waipahu home yesterday evening.

Woman wanted in robbery turns herself in to police

A 24-year-old woman believed to be an accomplice to a robbery and kidnapping of a Waikiki woman was arrested yesterday.

Junko "Tia" Faumuina turned herself in after seeing her name in a CrimeStoppers article in the newspaper, said Detective Letha DeCaires. Her husband, Christopher Choate, was still at large this morning.

Choate, a sailor assigned to the USS Cheyenne submarine who deserted, has been spotted a couple of times in the Salt Lake area, DeCaires said. A handgun, believed to be the one used in the robbery, was recovered from a friend's car he has been using.

He is accused of robbing a 69-year-old woman at her Wailana condominium on May 28. He forced his way into the woman's unit after identifying himself as a deliveryman. At gunpoint, he tied her up and robbed her of $15,000 in cash and jewelry, police said.

He was later identified through the building's surveillance tapes.

Man arrested in Waikiki for threatening officers

Police arrested a 44-year-old man for allegedly threatening to kill police officers in Waikiki.

The officers spotted the man inside a trash Dumpster on Lauula and Lewers streets at 7:30 p.m., police said. They confronted the man because of several trash bin fires in the area.

When they questioned the man, he became angry and police said he told the officers, "I'm going to kill you and your family. If I can't find you in five years, I'm going to find someone who looks like you and kill them."

Rescuers unable to revive man floating in water

A 52-year-old man found in the waters near Maunalua Bay died yesterday. Two surfers in a boat spotted the man face down in the water at 5:15 p.m., police said. They pulled him aboard their boat and took him to the docks at Koko Marina Shopping Center.

Police and firefighters attempted to revive the man, but were unsuccessful.