City attorneys agreed to pay $7 million to a boy who was partially paralyzed after a police chase led to a crash and an alleged cover-up in Makaha in September 2021.
In all, the Sept. 12, 2021, police chase of a car leaving an early morning beach park party has cost taxpayers at least $24 million. The incident is one of the costliest civil matters in Honolulu history.
The $7 million settlement is pending approval by the Honolulu City Council.
The settlement was accepted Thursday by attorney Eric Seitz in Oahu Circuit Court. Seitz represents the family of Dayton Gouveia, who was 14 years old at the time of the crash. The settlement offer came after at least two mediation sessions and one settlement conference were unsuccessful.
Seitz told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in an interview that his team plans to pursue “additional contributions” of money from the driver of the car, Jonaven Perkins-Sinapati, who got $12.5 million; and the owner of the car, Perkins-Sinapati’s then-girlfriend.
Four other passengers who sustained injuries in the early morning crash recently settled with the city for $4.5 million. Those passengers were 17, 18, 20 and 21 years old at the time of the crash.
“I’m very unhappy with the way the matter was handled by city lawyers,” said Seitz.
Ian Scheuring, deputy communications director for Mayor Rick Blangiardi, told the Star-Advertiser in a statement that the “parties, with the assistance of the court and a mediator,
participated in settlement discussions over the course of several weeks.”
“The parties have reached a tentative settlement agreement that will be subject to City Council approval,” wrote Scheuring. “The City declines to comment further on the settlement agreement until the members of the Honolulu City Council have had the opportunity to consider the offer.”
On Sept. 11, Seitz filed a federal lawsuit alleging the Honolulu Police Department’s motor vehicle pursuit policy is defective.
The complaint alleges that HPD’s policy is “defective in that it gives officers sole discretion to initiate a pursuit” and that it “fails to adequately instruct officers when a pursuit should not be initiated or discontinued.”
The policy is “deliberately indifferent” to the risks of death and injury and property damage by “the public and subjects being pursued,” according to the complaint.
Seitz said he filed the federal civil complaint in part because a trial date for Gouveia in state court was not available until September, and the city was refusing to make his client an offer.
On Monday a second joint status report was filed in the case.
“The parties have agreed to settle the underlying Circuit Court matter, and anticipate that the instant matter will be dismissed following the approval of the settlement by the probate court,” wrote Page C.K. Ogata, deputy corporation counsel. “The parties request that the instant matter be stayed an additional sixty days pending the final resolution of the underlying Circuit Court matter.”
Perkins-Sinapati, who was arrested twice in May, is in federal custody awaiting a preliminary hearing on drug and gun charges.
Officers allegedly chased the car without lights and sirens until it crashed.
Three officers allegedly left the scene without rendering aid, only to return when 911 dispatchers sent them to the scene.
The trio of officers allegedly acted like nothing happened when they arrived at the crash site, and the department originally listed the incident online as a single-car crash.
The officers were fired by the Honolulu Police Department in February.
Officers Joshua J.S. Nahulu, 37, Erik X.K. Smith, 25, and Jake R.T. Bartolome, 35, are free on bail. A fourth officer, Robert G. Lewis III, whose age was not released, also faces criminal charges in connection with the crash and cover-up.
Nahulu, Smith and
Bartolome filed grievances against the department, and their termination is not final.
Lewis was suspended in 2023 for three days for failing to “activate his body-worn camera (BWC) when he responded to a call for a noise complaint” and after “arriving at the scene of the motor vehicle collision” and when he interacted with a witness, according to HPD’s January discipline report to the state Legislature.
Lewis also didn’t “document in his submitted report the facts and circumstances of the initial encounter with the suspect vehicle and/or the initiation of the pursuit by police officers.”
He also hid the police officers’ involvement in “the pursuit that was a proximate cause of the (crash) and the officers’ involvement in fleeing from the scene.”
Three other officers were disciplined in 2023 in connection with the incident.
Nahulu is charged with collisions involving death or serious bodily injury for allegedly causing the crash near the corner of Farrington Highway and Orange Street that paralyzed Gouveia and left Perkins-Sinapati, the driver of the white 2000
four-door Honda Civic, with a traumatic brain injury.
Nahulu faces a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Smith, Bartolome and Lewis are charged with hindering prosecution in the first degree, a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
They were also charged with conspiracy to commit hindering prosecution in the first degree, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
All four entered not-guilty pleas March 23, 2023. Smith, Bartolome and Lewis were released after posting $5,000 bail, and Nahulu is free on $10,000 bail. They are scheduled to stand trial Oct. 7.
Gouveia was a passenger and was paralyzed for months from the neck down. Doctors estimated in his civil suit that the health care services he will need throughout his life will cost about $7 million.
Gouveia is working through depression and has permanent nerve damage and injuries to his neck and back that have led to mobility and balance issues and problems with internal functions.
