Officer did not request
backdating, lawyer says

A veteran police detective who was cleared of criminal wrongdoing for her conduct in a recent murder case did not ask a fellow detective to backdate any reports, her attorney said.

Attorney David Hayakawa was responding to testimony by fellow detective Ted Coons during a hearing yesterday in Circuit Court to determine whether an anonymous letter alleging misconduct by Detective Sheryl Sunia can be used at trial.

Sunia was the lead detective in the murder of Greg Morishima, who was gunned down in an Aiea carport in October 2003 by masked men allegedly looking for drugs.

Micah Kanahele, Rosalino Ramos and Jason Rumbawa are awaiting a retrial in that case later this month on multiple charges, including second-degree murder, first-degree robbery and firearm charges. Co-defendant Anthony Brown faces a single count of first-degree robbery.

During questioning by Kanahele's attorney, Richard Hoke, Coons testified that Detective Larry Tamashiro, who had assisted Sunia in the Morishima investigation, told him sometime after the trial that Sunia had told him to put in a request for a ballistic report and to "backdate it."

Tamashiro told Coons he refused to do it.

Coons testified that while he wasn't sure Sunia's request violated any administrative rules, he didn't think the request was proper and reported it to his superiors.

Deputy Prosecutor Lucianne Khalaf expressed concerns that Sunia and Tamashiro had not yet testified or established that Sunia had indeed made the statement Coons was testifying to.

Sunia and Tamashiro were unable to attend yesterday's hearing and are expected to testify at a later date.

Police Internal Affairs received an anonymous letter in April alleging misconduct by Sunia regarding her work in the Kanahele case shortly after the first trial ended in a hung jury. Police opened a criminal and administrative investigation based on the letter.

Coons said he was concerned about media reports mischaracterizing the contents of the anonymous letter before an investigation had been completed, so he called the court "to make sure the document wasn't taken out of context."

A paragraph in the letter apparently refers to Sunia's testimony at trial when she was asked whether ballistics tests had been performed on firearms that had been recovered in a duffle bag and she responded that Tamashiro had completed the request.

The paragraph ended with Sunia asking Tamashiro to put in a request and to backdate it.

Coons said he wasn't given a chance to discuss the matter with Circuit Judge Michael Town because Town realized he was calling about an ongoing case and ended the call.

Last month, the office of the state attorney general notified prosecutors that they found no basis for criminal charges against Sunia. The administrative investigation is still pending.

Defense attorneys want to use the contents of the letter to challenge Sunia's credibility at trial. Prosecutors contend that any statements made by Sunia are irrelevant to the criminal case.