Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar
Nobody said the job would be easy when Police Chief Douglas Gibb was sworn in as Honolulu’s top policeman recently.
But the recent suspension of several officers on suspicion of drug abuse and the indictment Friday of three others on civil rights violations has been a rough initiation.
The problems predated Gibb’s new administration, but chose the early weeks of his tenure to come to the surface.
“When I took the job, nobody told me it would be simple — but I didn’t expect it to be quite as challenging as it has been,” the new chief said in an interview today.
The most recent thorn in Gibb’s side was the indictment of the three officers in 1980 incidents in which handcuffed prisoners were allegedly beaten. Another officer pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge involving a civil rights violation.
Gibb suspended all four officers Friday afternoon, but today said it is up to the courts to decide if they are guilty or not.
“I’m not passing judgment,” Gibb said, but added, “The very fact that they are charged with perjury and civil rights violations concerns me.”
Gibb said he would offer no excuses for the misconduct of some officers, but cited the overall excellence of most of his men in blue.
“We’re a microcosm of society,” he said. “But we won’t tolerate misbehavior in the department.”
Three officers were named in two indictments returned by a federal grand jury and the fourth was named in a criminal information filed by U.S. Attorney Daniel Bent.
Officer Bernard G. DeCoito and Sgt. Benedict N. Awana were charged with assaulting Charles Fernandez on federal property at Fort DeRussy and depriving him of his civil rights in a Jan. 28, 1980 incident. The two were also accused of making false statements to the grand jury investing the incident. …
A second indictment charged DeCoito and officer Francisco Tagalicod Jr. with conspiracy to assault Scott K. Sabey and with depriving him of his civil rights on Nov. 22, 1980.
Both officers were also charged with lying to the grand jury investigating the incident.
