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Family of shooting
victim files lawsuit

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Star-Bulletin staff

The family of a Waialua woman who was fatally shot in the head by a neighbor's daughter during a quarrel between the families has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

The suit, filed in Circuit Court yesterday by the estate of Julia Alameida, seeks an unspecified amount of damages against the parents of Lovisa Rauch.

Rauch's court-appointed attorney, Dana Ishibashi, could not be reached for immediate comment.

Rauch, 18, is currently serving a one-year prison term for firing the single shot that struck 62-year-old Alameida in August 1998. Alameida had been watching an altercation between her son, Clayton Alameida, and Rauch's father outside their homes.

The families lived across from each other.

Rauch pleaded no contest to reckless manslaughter under a plea agreement with the state. She initially had been charged with second-degree murder.

The defense had argued Rauch never intended to kill anyone and retrieved the gun because she feared for her family's safety.

Ishibashi had said that an intoxicated Clayton Alameida had knocked Rauch's mother to the ground twice and threatened her father with steel pipes and bars.

At Rauch's sentencing in September, Circuit Judge Wendell Huddy found that while there were conflicting versions of what happened that night, the adults from both families failed to take control of the situation and were both responsible for what ensued.

Clayton Alameida served six months in prison for assaulting Rauch's mother.