Ex-LAPD officer pleads guilty in wife’s death
A retired Los Angeles police detective has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Hawaii for the beating death of his wife in 2006.
Dan DeJarnette, 59, pleaded guilty March 15 to manslaughter while under extreme emotional distress, the reported Monday. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison at sentencing.
DeJarnette moved to Hawaii after he retired from the LAPD in 2003.
In November 2006, he told police he woke to find his wife, Yu DeJarnette, lying on a lava embankment near their Hawaii island home. She was pronounced dead from head trauma at a hospital.
Police believed DeJarnette bludgeoned her with a tire jack. He was arrested at the time, but released for lack of evidence.
The case was reopened last year, leading to DeJarnette’s indictment and arrest.
Son gets jail for using dad’s disability cash
The son of a soldier who served in the heavily decorated 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II was sentenced to one year in prison for cashing government disability checks sent to his dead father.
Charles T. Takahashi, 62, of Maui was also ordered to pay restitution of $202,652.
Takahashi was told that after serving his time in federal prison, his Social Security payments could be partially garnished to repay the government.
Takahashi’s father, Suguru A. Takahashi, died on March 2, 2006, at age 85.
Charles Takahashi failed to inform the federal government about his father’s death and used the disability payments, which were deposited into a joint account, for more than six years. U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright, who imposed the sentence Monday, ordered Takahashi to turn himself in to federal authorities to begin his sentence on May 7.
Seabright said Takahashi knowingly embezzled the money and used it to support his lifestyle, including going to bars.
"Given the length of time this was going on … in my view is an aggravating circumstance," Seabright said.
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
Donors give DLNR a boat and funds to hire 6 people
State marine conservation officials have received donations of a new boat and funding for six staff positions to patrol a stretch of north Maui coastline in a pilot project that seeks to maintain fish stocks through enforcement and public education.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources held a blessing Saturday in Kahului for the 23-foot boat Kai‘aiki, custom-built by Rogue Jet Boatworks of White City, Ore. Conservation International’s Hawaii Fish Trust paid for the $120,000 boat, DLNR said.
Conservation International and the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation are also providing $320,000 and $300,000, respectively, to fund six new employees for the pilot project, as well as to buy a vehicle and supplies.
DLNR officers will use the Kai‘aiki to patrol a 13-mile stretch of coast from Hulu Island to Baldwin Beach Park. It is estimated that about 75 percent of nearshore fish stocks in Hawaii are depleted or in critical condition, DLNR said.
Conservation International is a nonprofit environmental group based in Arlington, Va.
Kayakers saved by Coast Guard off Valley Island
The Coast Guard rescued four kayakers who needed help returning to shore off Wailea, Maui, on Saturday.
A boater reported to Coast Guard Station Maui that four people in four kayaks were about three miles offshore and being blown to sea in 25 mph winds, with swells increasing to 3 to 4 feet, the Coast Guard said.
A 45-foot boat from Coast Guard Station Maui conducting training in the area was diverted to the scene. The crew picked up all four kayakers and their kayaks and brought them to shore at 2 p.m. The kayakers were wearing life jackets and were uninjured.
