CENTRAL OAHU

Blaze damages house in Mililani

Fire damaged about 75 percent of a house in Mililani last night, said fire Capt. Terry Seelig.

Firefighters were called at 8:06 p.m. to 95-245 Hoeu Place.

Three men were at home at the time of the fire and managed to escape safely, Seelig said. A woman who also resides there was not at home.

The fire was brought under control at 8:32 p.m., and the Red Cross was called to assist the residents.

The fire began at the rear of the four-bedroom home, Seelig said. The blaze also caused minor damage to a house next door where three people live.

HONOLULU

Coast Guard plane transports ill man

The Coast Guard flew a 39-year-old contractor suffering from chest pains from Midway to Oahu.

A physician on Midway alerted the Coast Guard to the emergency at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday. The Coast Guard sent a C-130 plane and picked up the man at 9:25 p.m. Tuesday.

The plane landed at Barbers Point, where the man was transported by Emergency Medical Services to the Queen's Medical Center at 3:40 a.m. yesterday.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Officers tell public of car-repair scam

KONA » Big Island police are warning the public about a possible scam in the Kona area involving car repair.

A 78-year-old Kona man reported a stranger approached him at his home Saturday morning and offered to help him repair his vehicle for $300, noting a pool of transmission fluid found in his driveway. The stranger then later raised the cost to $2,500.

Police said the resident became suspicious and gave him no money. He later found that his car was in perfect working order and was not leaking fluids, police said.

The stranger is described as 35 to 45 years old, about 5 feet 8 or 9 inches tall, with a thin build. He was driving a newer sport utility vehicle and was accompanied by a woman and a young boy, police said. Residents are urged to call police at 935-3311 to report any suspicious activities.

[ The Courts ]

Agreement delays Ka Loko Dam trial

LIHUE » The civil wrongful-death trial into the Ka Loko Dam breach has been pushed back to September by an agreement announced yesterday.

The agreement was reached between the dozen or so parties in the lawsuit, which pits the families of the seven people killed in the dam breach against Ka Loko owner James Pflueger, the county, the state, former owners and others.

According to David Fairbanks, attorney for those killed in the breach, the delay from its original trail date “;will ensure a meaningful and prompt mediation of this case.”;

Mediation is scheduled to finish on March 31, and the trial is set to begin Sept. 7, the original date the property damage trial was set to begin.

Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe had denied two earlier requests to move back the trial date, citing the amount of work the court had done to accommodate such a high-profile case.

The property damage trial - brought by Bette Midler and others whose land was affected by the dam breach - was tentatively moved back to May 3, 2010.

Former investigator has pleas deferred

Former city prosecutor investigator Craig Whang's guilty pleas were deferred yesterday during his sentencing.

Whang pleaded guilty in July to two counts of second-degree theft for using county funds to acquire firearm accessories for his own use. He also was guilty of two felony counts of unauthorized computer access.

Whang must serve 200 hours of community service, pay $620 in court fees and contribute $2,500 to the state general fund.

Whang had been a prosecutor investigator since 1992. City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle began a probe in 2003 into allegations of missing inventory.

Supervision stands for acquitted man

A man acquitted in the attempted murder of his mother by reason of insanity will remain on conditional release from the Hawaii State Hospital for at least six more months.

Circuit Judge Michael Wilson ruled to keep Rueben Ortiz at the Hale Imua transitional home in Kaneohe under 24-hour supervision. Ortiz has been seeking release from supervision.

Wilson said that because of Ortiz's progress with his treatment and medication, he will revisit the issue on May 13.

Ortiz stabbed his mother, now 82, in the chest three times in 2005. Half brother Harry Ortiz said the family remains terrified of Rueben Ortiz, and has been fighting to keep him under 24-hour supervised release for their safety.

Bail hits $500,000 in cabby's stabbing

A circuit judge granted prosecutors' request to increase the bail to $500,000 for a 34-year-old Makiki man accused of stabbing and robbing a 54-year-old cabdriver in Manoa.

Bail for Courage Lee Elkshoulder had been set at $150,000.

An Oahu grand jury indicted Elkshoulder yesterday on attempted second-degree murder and first-degree robbery.

Elkshoulder allegedly stabbed Minh Van Tran in the neck on Nov. 15. Elkshoulder turned himself in Friday following the release of a CrimeStoppers bulletin that had a surveillance photo of him and another suspect.

Tran, a driver for TheCab, picked up two men in Makiki and took them to Manoa, where Elkshoulder allegedly stabbed the driver at about 1:20 p.m. The two men took Tran's money and fled.

Tran was taken in critical condition to the Queen's Medical Center, but he has since been released.