Judge limits county options with Freitas

A federal judge in Honolulu postponed any ruling on suspended Kaua’i County Police chief George Freitas’ legal complaint to stop the Police Commission from proceeding against him yesterday.

In Freitas’ request for a temporary restraining order, attorney Margery Bronster characterized the commission’s slated hearing on the accusations against him as “a kangaroo court.”

Friday morning, after a teleconference between Freitas’ attorneys and county attorney Hartwell Blake, 9th District Court Judge Susan Oki Mollway set Jan. 14 as the date when she would hear the Freitas motion.

Freitas also filed a lawsuit Thursday against the county, naming as defendants Blake, Mayor Maryanne Kusaka and all the members of the commission except Mike Ching, who wasn’t on the commission in August when Freitas was suspended.

Bronster filed an 11th-hour motion for a temporary restraining order against the commission Thursday.

The commission was allowed Friday to proceed in their consideration of the five allegations still remaining against the chief, but only to decide if any more complaints could be dismissed. Originally, there were eight complaints against Freitas.

“This is basically a compromise. They (county and commission) agreed they will not take any negative action against the chief today,” explained John Hoshibata, another attorney for Freitas.

To aid in their deliberations, Freitas presented the commissioners with a three-page “declaration,” his first official answer to the allegations against him by recently retired chief inspector Mel Morris and Lt. Alvin Seto.

Hoshibata said the parties had agreed after the teleconference that the commission couldn’t take any disciplinary action against Freitas yesterday, but could consider removing more charges.

Two personnel-type complaints were dismissed. Freitas had been accused of yelling at Morris and, in another complaint, allegedly hung up on Seto after a disagreement via telephone. The commissioners voted to drop those two charges.

The remaining charge most observers feel is the single significant one – that Freitas hindered an internal investigation into alleged sex offenses by suspended officer Nelson Gabriel – was vehemently denied in Freitas’ declaration, made public yesterday.

“It is my understanding that there was an attempt to re-question the suspect’s (Gabriel) wife. The re-questioning of the suspect’s wife did not occur … because the private attorney representing the wife of the suspect refused to allow investigators … access to her,” Freitas stated.

Blake said the commission members will consider whatever action is next on the remaining complaints after the Jan. 14 hearing before Mollway.

When the commission members emerged from executive session yesterday and announced that two more complaints were dropped, Freitas asked Blake and the commission under what authority he had been removed from his position. There was no response to his repeated question.

Afterward, Freitas seemed displeased with what he said his attorneys classified as a victory.

“My attorney (Hoshibata) says we should be happy. But I want to go back to work,” Freitas said.

When asked if he would drop his lawsuit against the county if the commission reinstated him, Freitas was noncommittal.

“I don’t know what I would do. I just don’t know,”

he said.

The lawsuit, which doesn’t specify the amount of damages, would be ruled on by a judge or jury in a civil trial (Freitas claims the county, the commission, Blake and Kusaka deprived him of his civil rights) and would likely be covered by the county’s liability insurance. But the county would be responsible for the first $250,000 of a settlement.

Although Kusaka could not be reached for comment, this is believed to be the first lawsuit she has been named in personally during her nearly eight years in office.

Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net