A father and son suing the city after they were allegedly assaulted by Honolulu police officers during a New Year’s Day-long pursuit of an attempted murder suspect are “extremely frustrated” by delays in their case, according to their attorney.
In an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Michael D. Rudy said his clients, Tevita Cadiente, 25 and his father, Vaokehekehe Mataele, 49, were forced to delay the start of their civil trial until 2026 because they could not meet certain discovery deadlines without entering into a protective order with city attorneys.
“It is simply something that … we can’t really understand why this is taking so long,” Rudy said. “In order to retrieve any information we were required to have a stipulated protective order. We were very frustrated that there was a delay in getting anything because HPD wanted to be assured that none of this would be made public, which I find extremely strange. But we have to make a tactical decision. … We were confused by why. … They were insistent. We believe it’s a matter of public concern. Let the chips fall where they may.”
The pair were interviewed once for about 20 minutes as part of a criminal investigation into the incident, the findings of which are awaiting a decision by the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney on whether criminal charges should be brought against the police officers involved.
On Wednesday, Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm announced that officers were justified to shoot and kill attempted murder suspect Sidney Tafokitau after a cocaine- and alcohol-fueled day of pursuit and gunfights but said no decision on whether to charge the officers involved in the Cadiente and Mataele case had been made.
“The City has no comment as this lawsuit is pending litigation,” according to a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser from the city Department of the Corporation Counsel.
The Honolulu Police Department’s Professional Standards Office is conducting an administrative investigation of the officers involved to determine whether department policies and procedures were violated.
PSO investigators questioned Mataele and Cadiente on two occasions.
“The administrative investigation into the Cadiente case is ongoing and the criminal investigation has been sent to prosecutors. Due to the pending investigations, no additional information is being released at this time,” read a statement to the Star-Advertiser from HPD.
On Jan. 1, Cadiente, who knew Tafokitau from church, tried twice to call him to urge him to surrender, then ran with his father toward Tafokitau’s deadly shootout with Honolulu police.
The lawsuit alleges the father and son stood unarmed with their hands up when Cadiente was hit with a police van.
Cadiente suffered a facial fracture, a traumatic subconjunctival hemorrhage, a concussion, orthopedic knee injuries, cognitive impairment including memory loss and confusion, and vision loss after he was allegedly hit by a black police van that hopped the curb and ran him into a chain-link fence.
A lawsuit alleges that about 10 to 12 HPD officers pulled Cadiente out from under the van and beat him with their hands and the blunt ends of their weapons.
Rudy said the decision on criminal charges has no bearing on their civil case.
He blamed a lack of communication among officers pursuing Tafokitau as a reason they did not know his clients were unarmed bystanders.
Rudy’s investigation has found the police van was traveling at about 50 miles per hour when it hit Cadiente, and questioned how the officers identified Mataele and Cadiente as threats from 100 yards behind them.
“At a minimum, our own investigation shows a complete lack of communication between the officers that brought down the perpetrator 200 yards north of (Cadiente and Mataele) and the officers that pointed their rifles at our clients and the people that moments later came out of the van and with excessive force struck and ran over Cadiente,” said Rudy.
The decision to run over Cadiente had to be made “two to three seconds before impact. That would have put the identification at 100 yards behind these guys.
“How did you have probable cause? You are a football field away,” said Rudy. “Why did you decide … how they might be involved in this? It’s a real interesting question. The only thing they could have seen was two large brown men walking together toward the scene.”
