Trial has been set in a civil lawsuit brought against Hawaii County, two Hawaii Police Department officers, and the man who allegedly shot and killed a 59-year-old Volcano resident in 2021.
Hilo Circuit Judge Peter Kubota set a trial date of Nov. 27, 2023, in the case of the estate of Jay Allen Freeman versus Daris Paul Pacheco, the county, and officers Dwight Walker III and Alipate M. Moleni.
An amended complaint in the case was filed in June by Hilo attorney Kris LaGuire and Honolulu attorney Mateo Caballero, who represent Debra Molcilio, Freeman’s longtime girlfriend.
The suit — which seeks unspecified monetary damages, plus plaintiff’s attorney fees and costs — accuses the officers of negligence in their handling of complaints about Pacheco and the county of not properly training the officers.
Pacheco is charged with second-degree murder and numerous firearms, drugs and terroristic threatening offenses in the shooting death of Freeman, who was killed on the driveway of his Nani Nau Street property in Aloha Estates subdivision on April 26, 2021.
The midday shooting was described by Deputy Prosecutor Andrew Son during a criminal court hearing as “an execution in daytime.”
Pacheco, who was 32 at the time of the alleged crimes, has been found fit to stand trial and is in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center in lieu of $1.5 million bail. His next court appearance is set for Nov. 29, the same day as a status conference in the civil lawsuit.
The civil suit alleges that Walker and Moleni, both Puna patrol officers at the time, informed Pacheco, who lived two houses away from Freeman, that Freeman and other neighbors called police and accused Pacheco of “bearing and discharging firearms and repeatedly trespassing on their properties, which they captured on video, and that they were going to obtain temporary restraining orders against him.”
The filing states that Pacheco was angered by the officers’ reported disclosure, which“placed Freeman and the other neighbors in even greater peril” and the officers leaving the scene “without taking any other action and failing to implement appropriate crisis intervention measures to diffuse and prevent further escalation of this highly dangerous situation … substantially contributed to … Freeman’s wrongful death.”
The suit also states that Walker and Moleni increased the danger to Freeman and are liable for his death because they failed to follow “established standards of police procedure” and ignored “multiple reports and video proof of … Pacheco’s illegally armed aggression, discharge of firearms, repeated trespasses, and his ongoing mentally disturbed and crystal methamphetamine-induced behavior directed at Freeman and other neighbors.”
Moleni is still assigned to Puna, while Walker is now a Ka‘u patrol officer.
According to the lawsuit, Pacheco had five firearms registered in his name, and eight days before the fatal shooting, Pacheco was ordered to turn the firearms in to police when sentenced to probation in an unrelated harassment case. The suit alleges police had that information by April 21, 2023, five days before the homicide, but didn’t take any action when Pacheco allegedly didn’t turn in his weapons.
On April 23, 2021, HPD received an anonymous report of six to seven gun shots heard in the Nau Nani Street area and dispatched an officer, who didn’t contact any individuals and concluded all was well, the lawsuit states.
On April 24, 2021, Freeman, Molcilio and another neighbor, Rocky Co, heard gunshots coming from Pacheco’s house and called police, according to the suit. Walker was dispatched to the scene. The suit claims Walker’s body cam footage showed Freeman and Co telling them Pacheco had long been harassing and threatening them, repeatedly discharging guns, and that he was high on methamphetamine.
They also reportedly showed Walker Co’s video surveillance footage of Pacheco trespassing onto both of their properties late at night.
The suit alleges Walker didn’t check with HPD to determine if Pacheco had a criminal record, if there had been prior complaints, or whether there were any firearms registered to Pacheco.
“Such a check would have revealed the April 21, 2021, court order in defendant Pacheco’s criminal harassment case placing him on probation and requiring him to immediately relinquish all his firearms to HPD,” the report of gunshots on Nani Nau Street and an active suicide attempt by Pacheco reported to police by his sister a few days earlier.
An answer to the civil complaint by county Deputy Corporation Counsel Laureen Martin said the county and the officers “did nothing wrong or negligent and cannot be held liable.” The county’s reply further states the actions of the county and its officers “were reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances.”
LaGuire declined to comment on the suit. The Tribune-Herald also reached out to the Corporation Counsel’s office, which didn’t reply in time for this story.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.