GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
A lawsuit against people who frequented this alleged drug house in Wahiawa has improved the area, residents say.
Legal move is evicting
drug problems in HawaiiDrug abatement suits keep
alleged dealers out of
a residence
For more than two years, Wahiawa police could do little about reports of drug dealing at a Kaliponi Street house other than patrol the neighborhood and file away tips.
But just a few months after the state attorney general's office took up the case in late 2003, investigators filed a lawsuit against four people who frequented or lived at 82 Kaliponi St. Since January the four named in the "drug nuisance abatement" suit have been prohibited from even entering the home.
For neighbors, that's meant the difference.
"We had people coming in at all hours, all day and all night," said Francis Adaro, who has lived on Kaliponi Street for 50 years. "I'm very happy now. ... Nobody's around there anymore, thank God."
The suit was the first of its kind filed under a program -- created in August to battle the state's crystal methamphetamine epidemic -- that has garnered good reviews from both community members and law enforcement officials.
Proponents say the lawsuits are more effective than traditional drug raids, which do not necessarily keep alleged drug dealers (and their clients) away from a site. But just days after an abatement lawsuit is filed, alleged dealers could be barred from a residence.
In addition to the Kaliponi Street house, two other homes on Oahu and one on Maui have been targeted by abatement suits. The most recent was filed earlier this month against four tenants of a Waipahu home on Pahu Street.
"To my knowledge it's been successful," said Deputy Attorney General Kurt Spohn, who was in charge of a February lawsuit against residents of a home at 1949 Stanley St. in Kalihi.
Officials called the site a second-generation drug house: After a male resident was put in prison for a drug-related offense, his sons took over the neighborhood's drug trade.
"At least the neighborhood that's been suffering gets some relief," Spohn said. "I think it does really cut down on the drug selling."
But some worry that the civil lawsuits will clean out one neighborhood at the expense of another.
Spohn said that has been a concern. But, he said, criminal prosecution usually accompanies his office's drug abatement investigations. And, he added, the suits are "usually pretty disruptive to the drug dealers' business."
"When they get to another neighborhood," he said, "it takes them a long time to build up their clientele."
Two investigators assigned to the Drug Nuisance Abatement Unit work on tips made by residents and information from police.
A landlord will sometimes evict tenants after being informed about reports of suspicious activity, Spohn said. "Just the fact that something is happening is enough to make them scatter," he said. "Those cases outnumber legal action."
Kalihi police say the Stanley Street suit has reduced overall drug trafficking in the area.
"It has helped," said Officer Eric Yosemori, a Crime Reduction Unit member for the police district that includes Stanley Street. "Right now the drug activity has stopped from that (address)."
A number of Stanley Street residents agree the suit has helped clean up the neighborhood. They said they have seen less car traffic in the area since the suit was filed, and fewer people frequenting the home.
But most residents -- all of whom asked that their names not be printed for fear of retribution -- said the state's heat on the house has not scared off other dealers from the neighborhood.
"I think they should all be stopped," said one Stanley Street resident, whose guard dog stood at the ready.
Even on Kaliponi Street -- a quiet, residential road lined with small single-family homes -- people were afraid to give their names.
One woman said the community had "very much" improved since the suit, but added she was not sure she had seen the last of the problem.
"There's no (car) traffic now," said another man, who also asked his name be withheld. "It's way better."
