A state jury found a 22-year-old Maili man guilty Monday of misdemeanor negligent homicide for the Sept. 13, 2011, death of Honolulu police officer Eric Fontes at a traffic stop on Farrington Highway near Ko Olina.
The jury also found James Dorsey guilty of felony negligent injury for causing the injuries suffered by officer Herman "Sam" Scanlan in the same incident.
Circuit Judge Glenn Kim dismissed the jurors but did not declare Dorsey guilty of either charge because he said the two verdicts are clearly inconsistent.
By law a single act cannot arise from both negligence, the basis for a felony charge, and the less serious "simple negligence."
"One of them clearly is going to have to be dismissed," Kim said of the verdicts. "That’s what I think."
Kim scheduled a hearing in two weeks to hear legal arguments from the prosecutor and Dorsey’s lawyer as to which charge should be dismissed but said he was leaning toward dismissing the felony.
Deputy Prosecutor Kristine Yoo said outside the courtroom that dismissing one of the charges would erase what happened to that officer.
"So I don’t think at this point we should have to choose as to which officer gets his day in court," she said.
Dorsey does not dispute that he was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that struck Fontes. He told police he fell asleep while driving. The pickup also hit a car that then struck Scanlan.
Dorsey’s lawyer, Carmel Kwock, told the jury it was an accident and that Dorsey should not be held criminally liable.
Yoo told the jurors Dorsey should be held criminally responsible because he kept driving even though he knew he was falling asleep.
Dorsey did not testify in the trial.
He was facing two Class C felonies: second-degree negligent homicide and first-degree negligent injury.
Under the law, negligence means he should have been aware that his driving posed a "substantial or unjustifiable risk" of death and serious bodily injury.
The jurors instead found that Dorsey acted with simple negligence in the death of Fontes, meaning he should have been aware of the risk that his driving posed.
