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A lawsuit over the 2021 police killing of an unarmed Black man in Honolulu will go to trial after the City Council opted Thursday to send the matter back to the courts.

Council members had been poised to approve a $1.5 million settlement in the wrongful death case of Lindani Myeni at a meeting last month but delayed the vote after a strong show of opposition from dozens of Honolulu police officers as well as city officials, including Mayor Rick Blangiardi and Prosecutor Steve Alm.

Police armed and in uniform thronged the room as Myeni’s widow gave emotional testimony about the killing of her husband in support of the settlement.

City Council Chair Tommy Waters canceled a new vote scheduled for Thursday, saying the matter belongs in the courts. He said discussion around the case at last month’s meeting escalated “into what resembled a heated civil trial, with speakers presenting passionate arguments and facts from both sides.” 

The parties will meet for a scheduling conference next Thursday to set a trial date. Bridget Morgan-Bickerton, who represents Myeni’s widow, said the trial could last anywhere from three to five weeks. 

Before last month’s meeting, the council’s Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee had recommended approval of the settlement by the full council. The city’s corporation counsel and attorneys for Myeni’s widow, Lindsay Myeni, agreed to the settlement on Sept. 24.

High Emotions

Morgan-Bickerton said the council’s decision to decline action on the settlement, effectively nixing it, took her team by surprise.

“We certainly have never seen anything like this before,” Morgan-Bickerton said.

She took issue with the appearance of dozens of Honolulu police officers at last month’s meeting armed and wearing their uniforms, calling it “bullying and intimidation.”

In a statement, Waters noted the high emotions involved and said the case needs to be addressed within the framework of the judiciary system.

Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan said in a statement the department respects Waters’ decision.

“While it is tragic that a life was lost, we believe that a principle is at stake here and that a judge or jury should have the opportunity to hear what happened that night,” the statement says. “I thank our officers for their courageous service and the community for its continued support of HPD.”

Alm said in a statement that approving the settlement would have sent a message that the officers involved were motivated by racial prejudice. Lindsay Myeni’s attorneys have said officers treated Lindani differently because he was Black.

But Alm said there was “zero evidence of that.”

“If officers do something wrong, they should be held accountable,” the statement says. “But when they do something right, they should be defended.”

Cleared Of Wrongdoing

Officers shot 29-year-old Lindani Myeni on April 14, 2021, after a struggle outside of a Honolulu vacation rental Myeni was accused of having entered without permission.

The two officers who fired their weapons, Brent Sylvester and Garrick Orosco, were cleared of wrongdoing by Alm’s office in June 2021. 

Orosco suffered multiple facial fractures in the scuffle, and Alm noted the officer has not been able to return to work.

But attorneys for Myeni’s widow say officers did not announce they were police when they approached the former South African rugby player that night. Because it was dark and they shined high-intensity flashlights in his face, he couldn’t see who they were and was trying to defend himself from unknown assailants, according to the lawsuit.

Morgan-Bickerton said she’s confident a jury will decide in her client’s favor. She said attorneys are not requesting a specific amount of damages, but she called the previously agreed upon settlement amount “pocket change” for Myeni’s widow and his two small children. 

“It’s very hard to not find that police are culpable here and that they did something wrong,” she said.  “All the opposition is completely ignoring the facts.” 

Lindani Myeni was an excellent athlete, a great singer and a “standup guy,” his friend, Mateo Montoya-Collis, said in a phone interview. Montoya-Collis met Myeni in 2017 playing rugby with the American Raptors rugby club in Glendale, Colorado.

Montoya-Collis flew from Colorado to testify at Thursday’s City Council meeting. He said he was disappointed on behalf of Myeni’s family to see the vote on the settlement canceled. He said he will come back to Hawaii to testify in the trial if called as a witness.

He called it “gut-wrenching” to think about Myeni’s kids growing up without their father. During the time the two men played together, he said he was always inspired by Myeni’s ability to lift people’s spirits and support his teammates.

“He was a great teammate, he was a great friend,” he said. “He left a lasting impression on me.”

Other Settlements Approved

Separately, the council approved two other proposed settlements following last week’s committee recommendations.

One was a $670,000 settlement in a federal lawsuit filed by LGBTQ+ bar Scarlet Honolulu and newsletter Gay Island Guide’s against the Honolulu Liquor Commission, which was accused of using its power to violate the plaintiffs’ civil rights.

In addition to the monetary award, the settlement included oversight by a federal judge to ensure the liquor commission makes progress implementing long-standing recommendations from city audits to help stamp out its history of corruption and other allegations of inappropriate behavior.

The other came after a 10-year-old girl was arrested and handcuffed for a drawing she made at school of what appeared to be a firearm with a head on the ground, according to court documents.

Tamara Taylor, the girl’s mother, sued the Honolulu Police Department and the Hawaii Department of Education in 2022, claiming that the police used excessive force and unlawful discrimination against her daughter, a Black girl with ADHD who was the only child punished despite other students being involved. That settlement is for $150,000.

Civil Beat reporter Ben Angarone contributed to this report.