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The Honolulu City Council on Monday unanimously approved a $12.5 million settlement for the driver of a car that crashed after Honolulu police officers allegedly drove it off the road and fled the scene. 

The settlement was filed on behalf of Jonaven Perkins-Sinapati, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after the crash in Makaha on Sept. 12, 2021. 

One of Perkins-Sinapati’s attorneys, Michael Green, said his client will “never work again.” 

“He is basically going to stand on the sidelines and watch his children grow up and never be able to participate in any of the activities they do,” he said. 

Perkins-Sinapati’s is the second lawsuit against the city to be settled in connection with the crash that injured six people. A lawsuit filed on behalf of four passengers who were critically hurt was settled for $4.5 million last year.

Perkins-Sinapati, 38, who was in a coma for about six weeks after the crash, had the most serious injuries.

“He looks like someone that suffered a severe stroke,” Green said. “He has almost no use of his left arm.” 

Four Honolulu police officers — Jake Ryan Bartolome, Robert Lewis III, Joshua Nahulu and Erik Smith — are facing criminal charges. Nahulu is charged with causing an accident involving death or serious injury, and Bartolome, Smith and Lewis are each charged with hindering prosecution in the first degree and criminal conspiracy. They have all pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to stand trial on June 3. 

Nahulu, Smith and Bartolome were discharged from the police department in February, and Lewis received a three-day suspension last year. 

Green said he wanted to settle the case before the criminal trial because the proceedings could have affected the amount of damages Perkins-Sinapati was able to get. 

“When you look at his toxicology report, there was alcohol and cocaine in his system, so a jury may have decided he was at least partially responsible for his own injuries,” he said. 

Green said his client says he was pursued by a police car with no lights or sirens and was struck from behind multiple times until his vehicle ended up in a ditch. Prosecutors say the officers then fled, regrouped in another location and returned to the scene pretending to not know what happened. 

Perkins-Sinapati “didn’t hit anybody,” Green said. “They were chasing him, and the evidence appears to be they banged him in the back, hit him twice with their car, no lights no sirens, never called the chase in and then fled the scene.” 

The fifth passenger, Dayten Gouveia, still has two lawsuits outstanding against the city — one in federal court and another in state court. 

“City lawyers, inexplicably, have settled with everyone else except my client,” said Gouveia’s attorney, Eric Seitz. 

Gouveia’s lawsuits list the City and County of Honolulu, the accused officers and Perkins-Sinapati as defendants. 

Seitz called it “reckless” for Green to settle his case while Seitz still has pending claims against Perkins-Sinapati as the driver of the vehicle. 

“He’s got exposure because he drove his car at over 105 miles an hour, and my client was in the back seat. He didn’t have any control over the situation,” Seitz said. 

Gouveia, 17, still requires intensive physical and occupational therapy, and his medical bills have totaled more than $2 million so far.

But Green said Seitz should settle before the criminal trial because the amount of damages his client is eligible for could also be affected. 

“If he wants to gamble by coming after my client, and I take his client’s deposition, that’s up to him,” Green said. 

Ultimately, Green said he was satisfied with the settlement reached on behalf of Perkins-Sinapati. 

“We gave him quality of life, that’s all we tried to do,” he said. “We’re satisfied that we did, and we’re satisfied that his children will be able to be taken care of.”