HPD officers A commander in the Honolulu Police Department's cellblock ordered extra doughnuts to feed not only prisoners at the Central Receiving Division, but to ensure there was enough for higher-ups for their weekly bureau meetings, according to prosecutors.
will be tried together
in food theft case
They are charged with diverting
funds for inmates' mealsBy Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.comMaj. Jeffrey Owens continued to order food for officers and higher-ups even after he was transferred to head the Traffic Division, said Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee.
Details of the alleged theft at the police cellblock under the command of then-Maj. Rafael Fajardo and later Owens, who succeeded him as major, came out yesterday during a hearing. Owens asked the court to be tried separately from his former superior.
Owens and Fajardo, who retired in December as assistant chief, await trial for second-degree theft for allegedly diverting money intended to feed prisoners to feed police officers between January 1995 and September 2000. Both have pleaded not guilty. They are believed to be the highest-ranking Honolulu Police Department officials to face criminal charges.
Circuit Judge Gail Nakatani denied Owens' request to sever but granted a continuance of trial to Aug. 19 because of the extraordinary amount of discovery in the case. The case was to go to trial in March.
Owens' attorney, Darwin Ching questioned whether the jury can independently view the evidence for each defendant. He argued that the acts Owens is accused of are separate or distinct from those attributed to Fajardo and occurred at during different times. Owens was not assigned to the Central Receiving Division until November 1997 and was not a major in charge until December 1998 -- three years after the alleged conduct began.
Ching said the purchase of doughnuts approved by Owens for his men and for meetings was unrelated to the alleged purchases of rack of lamb and other expensive items allegedly approved by Fajardo.
"The evidence of rack of lamb was all done before he come into CRD," Ching said, but was presented to the grand jury to obtain a joint indictment against Owens and Fajardo.
Owens never took part in those elaborate early morning breakfasts because he did not come in to work until 7:30 or 8 a.m., Ching said.
The theft charge against Owens does not charge him with obtaining the food for his personal gain, Ching said.
Owens contends he had the authority and discretion over the use of money allocated to his division and that he approved the purchase of food for his division to beef up morale after officers were previously accused of violating prisoners' civil rights. Ordering turkey for officers at Thanksgiving was also for building morale, Ching said.
Ching said an assistant chief "indirectly ordered" the purchase of doughnuts for the Wednesday bureau meetings when he showed up at a meeting asking where the doughnuts were. The meetings were attended by assistant chiefs and the majors of each division.
Lee, who opposed a severance, said regardless of their motives, Owens and Fajardo are charged with the same continuing course of conduct over an overlapping time period. "They deceived the city in paying for the purchase of food knowing it was not going to prisoners," he said.
When Owens joined the Central Receiving Division, he and Fajardo both took part in ordering, serving and issuing false invoices for the purchase of food for officers, Lee said.
"Bottom line is, the city would not have paid had it not been deceived the food was going to prisoners, not police officers," Lee said.
Nakatani said she was confident Ching and Fajardo's attorney are capable of distinguishing their clients' conduct from each other and did not think it would prejudice either to try both at the same time.