CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Cline Kahue gestures at his initial appearance in District Court today. His lawyer did not enter a plea.
Ala Wai attacks A 48-year-old Waikiki man's alleged unprovoked attack Tuesday of three people along the Ala Wai Canal reinforces the need for more community services for mentally ill people, says a mental health official.
highlight needs
of mentally ill
The suspect may have hallucinated,
Wyatt touched many lives
sparking calls for more servicesBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com"With more support and mental health services, they do OK in the community," said Greg Farstrup, executive director, Mental Health Association in Hawaii. "The hospital is mostly an emergency situation if they're not getting services and they're in trouble."
Cline Kahue, who was charged last night with second-degree murder and two counts of assault, had a history of mental illness and prior arrests for assault, according to court records. His mother, Janet Kahue, obtained a temporary restraining order against him in June 1995, saying he had schizophrenia and was violent.
On Tuesday, Kahue allegedly pushed Jack Wyatt, former Star-Bulletin writer and avid walker, into the Ala Wai Canal, where he apparently hit his head and drowned.
Police said Kahue then punched a woman in the face and tackled another woman into the canal.
He had been involuntarily committed for 90 days to the psychiatric ward at the Queen's Medical Center in 1997.
He was taken to Queen's for psychiatric evaluation after his arrest Tuesday and was released to police after the hospital determined he was no longer a danger, police said.
If Kahue is schizophrenic and was not taking medication, Farstrup said, "He may have been hallucinating and seeing danger in the people he pushed."
Dr. Thomas Hester, the new chief of the state Adult Mental Health Division, said schizophrenia is a serious illness that -- if untreated -- impairs a person's ability to distinguish what is real and what is not.
"Hallmarks are hallucinations. It can be auditory or vis- ual, with delusions where people usually have fixed false beliefs.
"They can be paranoid delusions where people are in fear, not based on reality, of people around them," said Hester, who was appointed June 6 to succeed Linda Fox after she resigned.
Both Hester and Farstrup expressed concern that violent incidents, such as the ones allegedly involving Kahue, create a false image that mentally ill people are more violent than those without mental illness.
"Of course, we feel very saddened and shocked by those events (at the Ala Wai)," Hester said, "but if it turns out to be a person with mental illness, the tragedy can be compounded if that is used to create more stigma for people with mental illness who are fine members of the community."
Farstrup said there are things that can be done to assist people with mental illness, even if they do not want the help. "There are people who can go out and talk to a person, an assertive community treatment thing."
Legally, a person cannot be committed involuntarily to Hawaii State Hospital for mental illness unless deemed to be an imminent danger to themselves or others.
The state system also is designed to provide mental health treatment in the least restrictive setting.
Hester said a plan is being developed to expand and strengthen community services.
The purpose of the plan is to assure adequate services for people who have been or will be discharged from the Kaneohe hospital, he said.
For the past five years, every person discharged from the State Hospital has been placed in assertive community treatment, Hester said. This is a specialized, intensive form of case management in which a case manager and team of clinicians provide support services to patients in the community.
Mobile crisis teams on Oahu are available around the clock to work with people needing services, and crisis residential beds are available if someone needs a more protective, supportive setting for a short time, Hester said. More also is being done to develop housing for mentally ill people and to get them in training for jobs with support, he said.
Mental illness combined with drug and alcohol abuse presents the greatest risk for violence, Hester said. "One of the big areas we need to continue to improve on is integrated services of mental health and substance abuse for people with both disorders."
Bud Bowles, executive director of United Self-Help, said his group tries to get people who need help to mental health centers, then in support groups if they see a doctor and are diagnosed.
He advises calling one of the five community mental health centers if someone needs help: Central Oahu, 453-5953; Diamond Head, 733-9260; Kalihi-Palama, 832-5800; Windward, 233-3775; Waianae, 696-4211.
He suggests calling the police if someone is causing trouble or the suicide and crisis line (521-4555) if someone is suicidal.
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Jonnel Wyatt did not see her father often, but whenever she did, they made it count. Wyatt touched
many livesBy Rod Antone and Craig Gima
rantone@starbulletin.com cgima@starbulletin.com"We always ended it with 'I love you,'" she said yesterday from her home on Maui. "Every time we saw each other, we would catch up, and he was always happy and supportive of me and the family."
"He was a good guy, a really good guy. ... He gave a lot of people a lot of joy," said Jonnel, 36, the youngest of his four daughters.
Jack Wyatt, 71, a long-time free-lance sports writer for the Star-Bulletin, was killed Tuesday morning while walking along the Ala Wai canal when a 48-year-old Waikiki man allegedly pushed him into the water. Police said Wyatt hit his head on the reef and drowned.
Cline Kahue, who is accused of fatally attacking Wyatt without provocation, made his initial court appearance this morning.
Police charged him with second-degree murder last night.
Wearing only a pair of green shorts and holding his handcuffed hands above his head, Kahue was accompanied this morning by his court-appointed attorney, public defender Richard Sing.
Kahue kept his eyes shut during the brief court appearance, said Sing, who did not enter a plea on behalf of his client.
Judge Rhonda Nishimura set bail at $100,000. A preliminary hearing is set for Monday.
News about Wyatt's death shocked the local sports community, which he wrote about for 25 years.
"He touched many people's lives," said Kaili Chun, an artist and former swimmer. "He was very, very encouraging and supportive."
Chun said Wyatt used to cover her swimming career in high school and college, and they stayed in touch for more than 30 years.
She ran into Wyatt at the University of Hawaii about six months ago and said that he asked her to create his final resting place with her woodwork.
"He said he would be honored if I would make him someplace to stay after he passed away," Chun said.
She plans to carve an urn.
"He's given me so many gifts. This is but a tiny gift that I could give back to him."
Besides allegedly attacking Wyatt, Kahue also is being investigated for two assaults on women the same morning. Police said that after Kahue pushed Wyatt into the Ala Wai near Seaside Avenue, he continued running Ewa-bound, then punched a woman in her face and tackled another woman into the canal.
According to homicide Lt. Bill Kato, a police sergeant driving along the Ala Wai was flagged down by a woman who said she had just been punched in the jaw by a man.
The sergeant was looking for a suspect along the makai side of the canal when he was approached by someone who told him that "a crazy guy had just jumped into the canal," Kato said. The sergeant caught Kahue coming out of the water on the other side of the canal near the Ala Wai Club House.
Kahue has eight prior arrests, most of them for assault, according to Kato. Last year, Kahue was acquitted of four assaults that took place at District Court in 1997 because of "mental incapacity."
Police records also show that reports made in 1999 and 2000 said Kahue had assaulted people while he was at the Kekela Psychiatric Ward at the Queen's Medical Center. However, no arrests were made in those cases.
In June 1995, Kahue's mother obtained a temporary restraining order against him, according to court records.
Janet Kahue alleged that her son had assaulted her about a month earlier.
Star-Bulletin reporters Treena Shapiro and
Nelson Daranciang contributed to this report.
