Police want stiffer laws
for lifelong criminals

WAILUKU » Maui Police Chief Thomas Phillips said tougher laws should be enacted to keep repeat felons -- like the man shot resisting a police order to stop his vehicle on Monday -- in prison.

Phillips said he is frustrated that Hawaii's legal system allowed Paul L.V. Campos into the community, despite having 83 prior arrests and 42 convictions.

The majority of the 20 felonies were for thefts and burglaries, although he was sentenced in the early 1990s to 10 years in prison for second-degree robbery.

"He shouldn't be out there. He's a lifelong criminal," Phillips said.

Campos, 51, who was in stable condition yesterday at Maui Memorial Medical Center from a gunshot wound that broke his left jaw, tried to drive his sport utility vehicle out of a Kihei Villages apartment complex on Monday despite repeated warnings from a police officer.

The officer fired his weapon twice, after the vehicle bumped into him, police and an eyewitness said.

"I came close to losing one of my officers," Phillips said.

Phillips said unlike some other states, Hawaii doesn't have laws that keep repeat criminals in prison after so many offenses.

He said he and other law enforcement groups lobbied for a bill to keep repeat felons in prison this past session, but they didn't get a public hearing from legislators.

"They're not advocates for victims," he said. "They're advocates for defendants."

Maui Circuit Judge Joel E. August issued a warrant for Campos' arrest after he failed to appear in court for his May 9 trial on charges stemming from him allegedly stabbing a man in the arm in Kihei on Jan. 10.

Campos had been out on $50,000 bail.

A federal bench warrant also had been issued for Campos after he failed to make his first appearance in U.S. District Court in Honolulu on May 9 on a 15-count indictment that charged he filed fraudulent federal income taxes while in prison.

According to state public safety officials, Campos was shuttled between correctional centers on Maui and Oahu between August 2000 and September 2004 when he was released -- periods that coincide with the dates of the alleged federal offenses.

He already was facing state charges he fraudulently obtained more than $7,400 in state tax refunds while in prison and was expected to appear for trial in Oahu Circuit Court on May 11.

Campos' tax scheme apparently unraveled after a clerk in the business office at the Waiawa Correctional Facility noticed that he was receiving tax refund checks for periods during which he was incarcerated.