The University of Hawaii’s winningest football coach won in court Tuesday, beating a June 30 DUI charge, and got his driver’s license back.
Honolulu District Judge Timothy Ho dismissed the case against former Rainbow Warriors head coach June Jones for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.
The judge denied the state’s request to continue a hearing on Jones’ motion to dismiss the case, after a police officer being called as a witness failed to show up due to illness. Instead, Ho dismissed the case with prejudice, preventing the state from charging Jones again for the same allegation.
The 70-year-old Jones was stopped the night of June 30 by a police officer for allegedly speeding on Waialae Avenue near Kahala Mall after having dinner at a restaurant, and was a quarter-mile from home.
Jones took a breathalyzer test at the scene and blew .09, just over the legal limit. Hawaii law says it is considered a crime with .08 or more grams of alcohol per 210 liters of breath.
He was arrested at 9:28 p.m. at the corner of Kilauea and Waialae avenues on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.
After posting $500 bail, he was released.
Jones’ attorney, Paul Cunney, said Honolulu Police Cpl. Jason Tanaka, who stopped Jones for allegedly speeding, erred when he used an old method of measuring speed, and Cunney also found a problem with the breathalyzer results.
However, that may have not been a reason for the judge’s decision to dismiss the case.
Tanaka’s absence Tuesday was his second failure to appear. On Dec. 5 the motion to dismiss was first scheduled to be heard, and Tanaka and officer C. Austria were both sick and no-shows.
Cunney said Tanaka stopped Jones for speeding using a method called pace, rather than radar and laser, which are currently used.
Cunney said the pace method is used to clock a suspect’s speed by getting behind the suspect vehicle four to five car lengths behind, and following the suspect for three-tenths to four-tenths of a mile.
“Older cops don’t use laser,” Cunney said. “They haven’t been trained on it. It’s easier to just use the pace method.”
Cunney said Waialae Avenue between Hunakai Street and Kilauea Avenue runs alongside Kahala Mall and is too short of a distance to use the pace method.
He also said neither blue-and-white patrol cars nor any HPD-subsidized vehicles can have valid results using the pace method because HPD’s contract with a local company ended in 2021 since cars must go through a speed check to certify the accuracy of their speedometers.
“If the stop’s no good, you can’t go any further,” he said.
Cunney filed the motion to suppress the stop for no reasonable suspicion and moved to dismiss the case.
However, Jones told Honolulu Star-Advertiser sports writer Stephen Tsai shortly after the arrest, “I was speeding and got stopped,” Jones said. “I was coming from eating dinner. That’s all I need to say right now.”
As for the results of the breathalyzer, Cunney said the test was inadmissible because on July 13, 13 days after he blew into the machine, HPD took it offline because of a malfunction. He said the machine must maintain accuracy for 30 days before and after the test.
“I gave June back his license today,” Cunney said Tuesday. Jones had a temporary license, but now he has his permanent license back, which he said was returned by the Administrative Driver’s License Revocation Office when it reversed its decision to revoke his license for a year.
Jones’ driving had come under scrutiny nearly 23 years ago, on Feb. 22, 2001, when the then extremely popular 48-year-old UH football coach, who had turned around the losing team, was critically injured in a single-car crash.
Jones was the sole occupant of the 1999 Lincoln Town Car. Police said alcohol and drugs were not factors in the crash, and Jones said he had no recollection three months later of what happened.
Jones also said he had no medical conditions that could have contributed to the collision. Police also found nothing to indicate the crash into a pillar in the median was caused by an outside force. He was driving town-bound, just past the Hickam offramp, when he went off the shoulder.
He managed to recover and returned to coaching the team.
Jones, a former UH quarterback, played and coached in the NFL. As the Warriors’ head coach, he posted a 76-41 record in nine seasons through the end of the 2007 campaign, culminating with an appearance in the 2008 Sugar Bowl. He coached several teams after leaving UH in 2008. This spring he was offensive coordinator for the Seattle Sea Dragons of the XFL.
He tried for his old UH job in January 2022 but rejected conditions set by then-UH athletic director David Matlin, who has since retired.
