A 41-year-old Hawaii Police Department detective drew her gun Sunday as her 57-year-old ex-boyfriend, a retired assistant police chief, tried to break into her home, according to state court documents.
Mitchell Kanehailua Jr. Opens in a new tab, 57, was charged Monday with violating a protective order, attempted burglary, attempted third-degree assault and third-degree assault. He is in police custody in lieu of $9,000 bail ahead of a preliminary hearing on Friday in Kona District Court.
Kanehailua started his career at the Big Island police department in 1984 and retired in September 2019.
At about 5:28 a.m. Sunday, patrol officers were dispatched to an “active domestic” at a Hawaii Belt Road address in Kailua-Kona, according to a declaration by the officer filed Tuesday with a probable-cause affidavit.
Police dispatch informed the officers that Kanehailua was “attempting to break into the house” of a police detective who had her service weapon drawn.
The 41-year-old detective accused Kanehailua of domestic violence in February. She and the minor children she had with Kanehailua secured a restraining order against him March 6 that is in place until 2026. It prevents the parties from coming within 100 feet of one another.
The pair were in a “domestic relationship” from September 2016 until May 2020, according to court records.
The detective told one of the responding officers that she was asleep with her kids at about 5:08 a.m. Sunday when she received a call from a private number. She said she assumed it was her friend who lived in a home on the same property.
She told police that when she answered, she heard Kanehailua’s voice in the background prompting her to get up, leave her bedroom and walk to the front door.
Kanehailua was “yelling obscenities” and kicking the front door, according to the statement she gave the patrol officer. Kanehailua allegedly walked to the double-glass door on the side of the home and continued to shout at her.
Doorbell camera footage from the detective’s home recorded Kanehailua attempting to open the screen door, speaking to himself, kicking the door and screaming vulgarities, according to court records.
The detective told the patrol officer that she feared if Kanehailua broke through the glass doors, he “would be an immediate threat to her and her children.”
The detective “returned to her bedroom, retrieved her police duty pistol from a safe and returned to the living room” to keep an eye on Kanehailua.
Two of the detective’s nephews, who live on the property, moved in to confront Kanehailua and subdued him. The detective went to her subsidized police vehicle, grabbed her handcuffs and restrained Kanehailua.
“Upon my arrival, I observed a male party laying on the concrete driveway, handcuffed, later identified as Kanehailua,” wrote the officer who arrested Kanehailua. “Kanehailua did not appear to be in the right state of mind, yelling obscenities,” he wrote.
The 47-year-old woman who lives in another home on the property told police that she confronted Kanehailua and told him he had to go. He swung at her and missed, she told them.
According to state court records, Kanehailua faced three separate allegations of domestic violence dating to July 2021.
The most recent, filed Feb. 15, is marked “confidential and not public record at this time” in the state’s Judiciary Information Management System.
In February, Kanehailua’s wife and daughter were granted temporary restraining orders against him following erratic and angry behavior. His daughter eventually withdrew her petition.
She wrote to the court that she worried her father was battling depression and sadness after his mother died in 2022.
Deputy Attorney General Elyse C.N. Oyama is prosecuting the case. Kanehailua was referred to the state Office of the Public Defender.
The attorney general can agree to prosecute a case that would normally be handled by a county prosecutor when that county prosecutor makes a request to the department citing a potential conflict of interest.
To “protect the integrity of the ongoing prosecution,” the department declined comment, David D. Day, an attorney and special assistant to Attorney General Anne E. Lopez, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
