Newswatch
Police, Fire, Courts
Star-Bulletin staff and wire
Maui County closes deteriorating center
WAILUKU >> Maui County parks officials have closed the Maunaloa Community Center building on Molokai because of the deteriorating condition of its floors and ceiling.Molokai District Parks supervisor Zack Helm said yesterday the cafeteria-sized building capable of holding some 600 people had been used for a variety of social functions, including community meetings, Summer Pals, and wedding receptions.
Helm said there are no buildings in Maunaloa that could currently serve similar functions.
Molokai Ranch owns the building and land, and the county has been leasing the facility on a monthly basis, he said.
Parks Director Glenn Correa said the county granted $500,000 in funding for a new center to Molokai Ranch a couple of years ago.
He said the ranch wants an additional $300,000 to build the center.
"We're at a stalemate right now," Correa said. "We need to sit down with the ranch ... "
Parks officials said they will try to find an alternative facility for individuals holding existing permits for the center.
For further information, residents are asked to contact the permit office on Molokai at 553-3204 or on Maui at 270-7383.
Maui mayor forms cruise ship task force
WAILUKU >> Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa has established an advisory committee about the cruise ship industry.The Mayor's Cruise Ship Task Force has people from government, business and environmental groups, including Sierra Club official Stacia Bobikevich and Lahaina Town Action Committee Executive Director Theo Morrison.
"I've asked the Task Force to take a comprehensive approach to evaluating the impacts of the industry," he said.
The task force is to recommend courses of action to improve the industry and limit potentially negative effects.
County economic development coordinator Lynn Araki-Regan said hearings will be held to gather information from the public.
Police, Fire, Courts
By Star-Bulletin staffHONOLULU
Police arrested and charged a man yesterday who they say tried to rob a bank but left after the teller told him she was short on cash.
HPD nabs suspect in attempted bank heistRobbery detectives arrested 20-year-old Froilan Luga of Mapunapuna Monday.
Police said Luga walked into the main branch of City Bank at 201 Merchant St. at 11:05 a.m. on Dec. 31 and handed the teller a note demanding a large sum of money.
The teller told the suspect she would try to fill his demand, but didn't have a lot of cash, so he left the bank empty-handed, police said.
The suspect was identified and arrested Monday. Police charged Luga with second-degree robbery yesterday.
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
WAILUKU >> A fire caused more than $1 million in damage to a furniture warehouse in Wailuku yesterday morning.
Wailuku store suffers $1 million in damageMaui County Assistant Fire Chief Alan Cordeiro said the cause of the fire at Standard Furniture & Appliance Inc. remains under investigation.
Firefighters from as far as Wailea arrived to fight the blaze, which was under control more than two hours after the alarm at 12:39 a.m.
The furniture store's display room, across the street from the warehouse, was untouched by the fire and continued to be open for business.
The warehouse was insured for fire damage, according to a member of the family who owns the business, which was established in 1964.
Big Isle blaze limited to upper unit of condo
Fire destroyed the upper floor of a two-unit condominium building in Kailua-Kona on Monday night.No one was home at the Hale O Kona condominium on Alii Drive at the time of the fire.
When firefighters arrived at about 9:33 p.m., the entire upper floor was engulfed in flames, a Big Island fire official said.
Firefighters stopped the fire from spreading to the first floor and to adjacent buildings and had the fire under control at 10:49 p.m.
Damages was estimated at $600,000. Fire investigators were at the scene today to determine a cause.
CENTRAL OAHU
A 39-year-old Mililani Mauka woman heard someone breaking into her car at 12:15 a.m. yesterday at her Malielie Place home and called police.
Alert couple help catch alleged car burglarPolice said the woman's husband went to check on the car and found a man inside with the stereo removed. Police said the 43-year-old husband then wrestled the suspect to the ground and held him until police arrived. Police arrested the suspect, 24-year-old Mililani man, for unauthorized entry into a vehicle.
Good Samaritan has car stolen as thanks
An 18-year-old Waipahu man went to the aid of a Mililani man who was getting beaten up Monday, but the assailants turned on the Good Samaritan, whose car was then allegedly stolen by the first beating victim.Police said the 24-year-old suspect was being beaten up by two men about midnight Monday at the Mililani Shopping Center when another man came to his aid and the two men turned on him.
The first beating victim allegedly got into the car of the man who tried to help him and drove off, police said.
Police said the suspect got into an accident and fled the scene. He was arrested at about 1:30 a.m. yesterday for fleeing the scene of an accident and drunken driving about a mile away on Waimakua Drive in Waipio Valley.
The victim reported his car stolen and police put the two cases together.
They arrested the suspect for auto theft.
[ COURT BRIEFS ]
Tour company sued for leaving woman behind
The estate of a Florida woman who died after being separated from her group while on a tour of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park lava fields is suing a Hilo tour company for abandoning her.Named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court yesterday by widower John Gast and the couple's two daughters is Sung Ki Kwak, doing business as Shin Jin Hawaii Travel & Tour and tour van driver Cynthia Hathaway.
Jacqueline Gast of Fort Myers was found Oct. 15, 2002, close to the end of Chain of Craters Road, where she had been dropped off with other visitors the day before. She and her husband had been vacationing on the cruise ship Norwegian Star that docked at Hilo Harbor on Oct. 14.
The lawsuit alleges the tour company and its driver left the pickup point without accounting for all its passengers and failed to follow up with National Park Service employees even after requesting help in looking for Gast.
John Gast had left the ship before his wife early that morning to take a helicopter tour and returned to the ship just over three hours later to find his wife had not yet returned. Jacqueline Gast left the ship shortly after he did and joined a Shin Jin tour group for a trip to the lava fields at Hilo. She was not among the group of visitors who were returned to the Norwegian Star about noon.
The cruise ship left Hilo Harbor about 1 p.m. after Jacqueline Gast could not be located by the ship's personnel and local Big Island officials.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, alleges Hathaway and Shin Jin Tours was negligent by failing to follow-up, investigate and help Gast upon learning she had been separated from the tour group.
The suit also alleges Shin Jin tours failed to adequately train its drivers to deal with foreseeable risks and hazards the lava fields posed to tour groups.
Shin Jin Hawaii and Hathaway could not be reached for comment.
Convicted shooter receives life sentence
A former Kalihi man convicted of shooting a Waipahu man to death during a traffic incident in December 2002 was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.Moses L. Thompson, 24, was also ordered to serve a mandatory 20 years for using a semiautomatic firearm when he shot Eugene Rios.
Walter Rodby, Thompson's public defender, indicated they will appeal after Circuit Judge Richard Perkins also rejected their requests for a judgment of acquittal and a new trial.
Honolulu Police Department Crimestoppers
