Probe of Kauai LIHUE >> Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste said yesterday he will ask the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI to investigate charges that Kauai police officers are members of a criminal organization involved in drug trafficking.
police widens
The mayor will ask
the U.S. attorney and
the FBI to investigate
corruption allegationsBy Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.comThe allegations were made in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court by Kauai police officer Mark Begley against Kauai County, police Chief George Freitas, a police lieutenant and a man who is not a police officer.
"We have a duty to seek the truth for our citizens, and we take these allegations seriously," Baptiste said in a prepared statement released yesterday. "The county is therefore making a request to the FBI and the U.S. attorney for the initiation of an investigation into the allegations in this case."
Baptiste followed that comment with an endorsement of the Kauai Police Department: "I believe we have fine men and women serving in the Police Department who are dedicated professionals with a vested interest in creating and promoting safe environments for our communities."
In his lawsuit, Begley accused Freitas of failing to investigate allegations that:
>> The lieutenant named in the lawsuit is a member of a criminal organization that includes both officers and civilians. Members of the organization allegedly seize narcotics from drug dealers but do not make arrests or turn the drugs in as evidence in criminal cases.>> In one incident cited in the lawsuit, an officer twice went to Kapaa High School and was given narcotics taken from students by school administrators. No police reports ever were filed by the officer, and the drugs never were turned in as evidence.
>> When Begley complained about the lieutenant's activities to Freitas, they were not investigated.
>> The lieutenant assaulted Begley, hitting him on the head so hard that he had to air-evacuated to a hospital on Oahu for treatment for brain damage that has left him disabled.
>> A woman who has worked as a drug informant complained that drugs she obtained in "controlled buys" were kept by the same lieutenant that and arrests never were made. She said she also told the lieutenant about two drug-related murders that never were investigated.
>> The same woman was raped by a relative of the lieutenant who told her the rape was a warning to keep her mouth shut about the lieutenant's activities.
>> All of the officers who worked under the lieutenant's supervision were either members of the criminal organization or were willing to ignore it.
County of Kauai
