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ACLU enters another
complaint against
Chief Carvalho

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By Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

The U.S. Justice Department has informed Big Island officials that a lawsuit judgment against the police chief does not bar him from applying for federal law enforcement grants.

Chief Wayne Carvalho is eligible to seek $265,000 in marijuana-eradication funding, according to a letter from the Justice Department's Office of Justice Programs comptroller, Cynthia Schwimer.

Deputy county attorney Ted Hong released the letter yesterday. Hong sought the clarification after County Council member Julie Jacobsen questioned whether the funding was jeopardized by the December jury verdict against Carvalho in a civil suit brought by 19 police officers about allegedly rigged police promotions.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii yesterday entered another Big Island officer's dispute with the police chief.

ACLU cooperating attorney Edward Kemper charged that the Hawaii County Police Commission violated its own rules as well as officer Tanny Cazimero's First Amendment rights when it rejected his complaint about Carvalho.

Cazimero, who was suspended by a departmental review board for complaints about traffic citations, asked that the Police Commission remove the chief from office, at least temporarily, for allegedly bringing "disrepute" on the department.

The commission followed the county attorney's advice and found that the police officer did not have standing to bring a complaint.

"Government cannot and should not create artificial barriers to a citizen's rights to petition their government," said ACLU legal director Brent White, who asked the county to abandon the position. "Otherwise, the matter will have to be resolved in the courts."

Hong responded that Cazimero's complaints have "always been in the context that 'I am being retaliated against.' Cazimero had the opportunity to file a grievance under his collective bargaining agreement. That is his avenue. He chose not to take it."

Hong pointed out that the Police Commission was established to hear citizens' complaints against police officers and in that context "Cazimero is not a member of the public.

"I'm disturbed that the ACLU feels it necessary to litigate this in the press," said Hong. The ACLU press release was distributed yesterday but "I haven't had the courtesy of a faxed letter. They don't know a lot of the facts. I would love to meet them in court.

"At no time has the police department infringed on his First Amendment rights," Hong said. "He has been exercising his First Amendment rights like Arnold Schwarzenegger working out with barbells."

Cazimero, who is based in Waimea, announced last month that he is a Green Party candidate for the Hawaii County Council, seeking the North and South Kohala seat now held by Leningrad Elarionoff, a retired police captain.

Carvalho has filed an appeal of the verdict finding him liable for civil penalties for allegedly helping candidates preferred by then-Chief Guy Paul get promoted in the 1980s. Hawaii County and retired Deputy Chief Francis DeMorales also appealed the $4.2 million judgement to the Hawaii Supreme Court.