Honolulu Police Fired For Buying Gun Parts, Domestic Violence And Not Activating Bodycam
In all, 37 officers had disciplinary actions finalized last year and another 31 had grievances pending or in arbitration, according to a legislative report.
Twelve criminal cases involving 10 Honolulu police officers were sent to prosecutors last year, according to a disciplinary report submitted to the Legislature by the Honolulu Police Department on Wednesday.
Seven officers also were fired or resigned or retired prior to their discharge, the report says.
One of those, Carl Hood, was accused of obtaining parts to manufacture a firearm with no serial number and possessing a firearm despite stipulations in a temporary restraining order that prevented him from having one. The case was referred to prosecutors, but he has not yet been charged, according to court records.
Hood was also accused of striking a family member and repeatedly calling them derogatory names. He was discharged in connection with the gun manufacturing accusation, according to the report.
Hood ran as a Republican for the state House in 2020 but was defeated by the Democratic incumbent, Roy Takumi.
One of the officers who retired prior to discharge was Adrian Paiva, who was accused of 鈥渋nappropriately grabbing鈥 a female subordinate during a pat-down for a training exercise, the report says. A fourth-degree sexual assault charge was referred to prosecutor鈥檚 office. He pleaded not guilty to two fourth-degree sexual assault charges in 2020, according to court records, though it is unclear if that was related to a separate case.
Officer Mark Kutsy retired prior to discharge after he was accused of falsifying a traffic citation for a traffic stop he did not conduct. And Justin Castro, who resigned prior to discharge, was accused of dating a subordinate officer and threatening the subordinate with possible termination if they ended the relationship, according to the report.
Two other officers had their discharges reduced to a 20-day and 60-day suspensions after they were accused of driving under the influence and colliding with other vehicles.
Antonio Mendoza, who was charged with abuse of a family member and terroristic threatening in 2022, was discharged.
The report noted that the initiation of a criminal case does not imply that it had been accepted for prosecution or that it was a determining factor in the disciplinary action taken against the officer.
Sheldon Watts, who was involved in the pursuit of an intoxicated driver in 2019 that resulted in three people being struck and killed, was fired in 2020, but his discharge was not finalized until last year after a grievance process. He failed to follow the department鈥檚 pursuit policy and did not activate his body camera, the report says. He also gave false information about the pursuit in a police report about the incident.
Ten officers were accused of misconduct involving their body cameras, including failing to activate the cameras, failing to keep them in buffering mode, failing to download footage after a pursuit and failing to ensure that subordinate officers involved in an incident handed over their footage.
Robert Lewis, one of the officers charged in connection with a 2021 police pursuit and subsequent crash that injured six occupants of a vehicle received a three-day suspension last year. The report says he failed to activate his body camera upon arriving at the scene of the crash and concealed his fellow officers鈥 involvement in the pursuit that preceded the crash. Jake Ryan Bartolome, Joshua Nahulu and Erik Smith are also charged in connection with the pursuit, though they are not mentioned in the disciplinary report.
In all, 37 officers had disciplinary actions finalized last year and another 31 had grievances pending or were in arbitration.
Neighbor island police departments also submitted disciplinary reports to the Legislature on Wednesday.
In Hawaii County, and one was issued a disciplinary transfer, but each of the cases was in arbitration or had grievances pending. In Maui County, and his case was referred to the prosecutor’s office for “commission of a criminal act,” but the case had a grievance pending.
The Kauai Police Department reported Feb. 3 that no officers were discharged in 2023, but an officer was given a five-day suspension for without probable cause.
