Kauai murder LIHUE >> A suspect in a series of murders and rapes in West Kauai two years ago has filed a slander suit against the Kauai Police Department, Honolulu Magazine and The Garden Island newspaper.
suspect sues cops
Honolulu Magazine and the
Garden Island newspaper
also are named in the suitBy Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.comIn his lawsuit filed in Kauai Circuit Court, Waldorf Wilson also accuses Kauai Police detectives of "pressuring" the Hawaii Paroling Authority to revoke his parole and put him back in prison.
Wilson flatly denied any responsibility in any of the three attacks.
Wilson was convicted in 1983 of a rape on Oahu. He was paroled on Jan. 9, 1999, and in January 2000 moved to Kauai.
On April 7, 2000, police found the body of Lisa Bissell, 38, a transient, in a ditch near Polihale State Park. She had been raped and stabbed to death. On May 22, 2000, a 52-year-old woman was badly beaten and stabbed in the yard of a remote Kekaha home.
It is believed her attacker left her for dead.
On Aug. 30, 2000, the body of Daren Singer, 43, of Maui, was found at her campsite on a West Kauai beach. She had been raped, beaten and stabbed to death.
Kauai Police detectives immediately began interrogating all known sex offenders on the island.
According to Wilson's lawsuit, detectives "coerced" Wilson into taking a polygraph examination on Sept. 12, 2000, and then "strongly pressured" the Hawaii Parole Authority to revoke Wilson's parole.
The lawsuit does not give the results of the polygraph examination.
"Detective (Lt. Bill) Ching indicated that he personally wanted the Plaintiff held as he believed him to be the prime suspect in the above-mentioned attacks," the lawsuit states.
It does not state when or where Ching allegedly did this. Ching, who was the Kauai police chief of detectives, has since retired.
The lawsuit also claims DNA tests the police said in press releases were "inconclusive" were "more likely clearly not a match, thus exonerating the plaintiff."
Wilson was arrested on Sept. 12, 2000. That night, KHNL Channel 8 news broadcast a story that Wilson had been arrested for violating parole after being questioned in the attacks on the women.
The lawsuit was filed on Sept. 11, 2002, the last day before the two-year statute of limitations on civil lawsuits would have expired.
KHNL, which is the only news organization to name Wilson as a suspect, is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Honolulu Magazine, which recounted the Channel 8 report but also said Kauai police "quickly denounced" the report, was sued. A Garden Island Jan. 28 article did not name Wilson, but the lawsuit alleges that the Kauai newspaper defamed him by "innuendoes."
Parole Authority records show Wilson remained in prison for the parole violation until Feb. 28 of this year.
On June 15, he again violated parole conditions when he failed a polygraph examination. He currently is back in prison.
Kauai officials said yesterday they had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on it.