DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Edward Van Lier Ribbink was emotional yesterday as he identified Manuel Kupahu Jr. as one of the people who beat him up in Waimanalo on March 30. Van Lier Ribbink said he asked Kupahu to stop beating and drowning Kupahu's dog. Kupahu, his son Robert and Guy Meyers are on trial for the attack on Van Lier Ribbink.Assault victim
identifies 3 attackersHe testifies he tried to stop a
pet owner from abusing his dog
The victim of an assault at Waimanalo Beach Park identified three of his attackers in court and described how they beat him.
A visibly upset Edward Van Lier Ribbink, 51, a senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer of the Hawaii Medical Service Association, took the stand yesterday in Circuit Court as at least two of the defendants smirked, laughed and engaged in whispered exchanges during his testimony. The jury trial is before acting Circuit Judge Gerald Kibe.
Charged with first-degree assault in the March 30 attack are Manuel Kupahu Jr., 53, a city road maintenance worker for 33 years; son Robert K. Kupahu, 28; and cousin Guy Meyers, 40. Manuel Kupahu is also charged with cruelty to animals.
The three deny causing serious bodily injury to Van Lier Ribbink. Manuel Kupahu denies even touching him and defended his treatment of his dog, saying he was teaching it a lesson for running away and chasing another dog at the park.
The younger Kupahu is awaiting sentencing on federal drug charges. Meyers had just been released from Halawa Correctional Facility the day before the attack.
Van Lier Ribbink said he was on the beach that day to watch two of his children participate in a paddling competition.
He noticed a man, knee deep in the water, "savagely beating and drowning his dog." He identified the man as Manuel Kupahu.
"He raised the dog by the back of the collar in the air, made a fist and punched it repeatedly, driving it into the water, and held its head under the water repeatedly," Van Lier Ribbink said.
Van Lier Ribbink said he tried to call 911 three times, but his cellular phone was out of range. So he tried walking near the man and pretended he was calling police.
Van Lier Ribbink then pleaded with the man to stop: "I asked him, 'Please, please leave your dog alone.'"
But the man turned to him and said, "I feed this dog, it's my dog, I take care of this dog, I do whatever I want to my dog." Then he added: "Get out of my face, haole. Get off my f---ing beach."
The man shoved him twice, Van Lier Ribbink said, so he grabbed the man's shirt with both hands and they wrestled to the ground.
"I tried to pin him on his back, subdue him so the dog could get away," he said. Meanwhile, he could hear his wife pleading in the background for the man to leave the dog alone.
When he heard his wife say, "Oh, my God, the dog's dead," Van Lier Ribbink said he let go of the man and got up.
The dog "took one last gasp, expelled the air, and that was it," Van Lier Ribbink said.
He watched as the man dragged the limp body of his dog away.
Van Lier Ribbink and his wife were headed to their car when he spotted the man who had beaten his dog emerge from behind some ironwoods with three other men. He said he heard the man yell: "There he is. I'm ready for you now. Get him!" as the group ran toward them.
He identified Meyers as the first man to cut him off and who began swinging at him. Van Lier Ribbink said he held up both his hands, saying, "I don't want any trouble." When the man continued swinging, he said, he parried the blows.
They punched and kicked him. From the corner of his eyes, he saw the younger Kupahu back up, run up and kick him in his ribs and punch him in his face. He also remembers the elder Kupahu kicking him. A fourth person he could not identify also kicked him. He said he was unsure if Meyers struck him but that Meyers was there.
Van Lier Ribbink said he did not fight back.
