Deputy and guard will not be prosecuted in shootings
HONOLULU — Prosecutors declined to bring charges against a sheriff’s deputy and a correctional center guard in separate fatal shootings.
Officials from two agencies chose not to prosecute the deputy and jail guard who each killed unarmed men.
The state Department of the Attorney General found insufficient evidence to prosecute a deputy who killed 28-year-old Delmar Espejo in February during a struggle at the Capitol rotunda in Honolulu, officials said.
Espejo was homeless and refused to dispose of a beer he was drinking before starting an “extreme struggle” with the deputy, officials said. Espejo held the officer in a headlock, officials said.
The deputy attorney general told Espejo’s family that another homeless man saw the deputy and Espejo rolling on the ground before the officer fired his gun into Espejo’s back, said family attorney Myles Breiner.
Maui Deputy Prosecutor Mike Kagami chose not to prosecute the Oahu Community Correctional Center guard who chased 47-year-old Maurice Arrisgado Jr. and shot him in the back in March. Arrisgado was an inmate in the process of escaping from the jail, officials said.
The case was transferred to Maui because Arrisgado’s father was a deputy prosecutor with the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office, officials said.
Arrisgado family attorney Eric Seitz said they plan to sue.
The state Department of Public Safety has ongoing internal investigations into both deaths.
Group sues to halt development at Oahu beach park
HONOLULU — An attorney representing a group of residents opposed to development in an Oahu beach park plans to seek a court injunction against the project.
Attorney Tim Vandeveer filed a lawsuit and expects to take further legal action against development within Waimanalo Bay Beach Park.
About 140 demonstrators opposing the development gathered Saturday at the park’s woodland area known as Sherwood Forest, which covers 74 acres.
Honolulu wants to clear a plot to build a multipurpose field, playground and 11-stall parking lot, said Andrew Pereira, a spokesman for Mayor Kirk Caldwell. The $1.43 million project is a compromise from the city’s 2012 plan to develop a $32 million sports complex and 470-stall parking lot, Pereira said.
The city failed to adhere to federal land use controls, violated federal and state historic preservation law, conducted an inadequate environmental assessment and used a flawed permit approval process that distorted the park’s primary and special purposes, Vandeveer’s lawsuit said.